Friday, March 21, 2014

Pitt finally beats a higher seed

The Pitt Men's basketball team achieved something in its second round NCAA tournament game on Thursday that it hadn't accomplished since 1981--a victory over a higher seed.

In fairness, it was only a victory over an eight seed, as the Panthers, seeded ninth in the South region, easily disposed of Colorado, 77-48, in a game that Pitt was favored to win by six points.

But for a program that hasn't had much to hang its hat on with regards to the Big Dance, at least it was something. And that 29 point victory also marked the largest tournament win in program history. (A fairly remarkable and surprising feat, when you consider the many high seeds the basketball program has enjoyed since I started following it back in 1987 as a 14 year old.)

The impressive win sets up a date with Florida Saturday afternoon at 12:15 ET. The Gators aren't just the number one seed in the South bracket, they're the number one seed, overall, so, obviously, Pitt will have its hands full.

Can the Panthers win? This remains to be seen, but they've been on the other side of this kind of equation many times over the years and failed.

Why not Pitt? Why not now?

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