Pitt draws No. 3 seed, opens against Wright State
PITTSBURGH – The Panthers knew they were being invited to the NCAA Tournament before last night’s invitation presentation on live TV. They are one of only 12 teams in the nation that are making a sixth-consecutive appearance in the “Big Dance” and the only team in the Big East to achieve the feat. The questions that still remained about Pitt’s fate were answered last night in front of a throng of fans, supporters, and media at the Petersen Events Center, namely the bracket seeding, which included first round opponent and location, region, and potential opponents.
The story lines surrounding Pitt’s tournament appearance this year are abundant. The Panthers are seeded third in the West Region Bracket. Their opponent is the fourteen-seeded Wright State Raiders from Dayton, Ohio out of the Horizon Conference.
West Virginia, on the other hand, has no story line because it received no NCAA bid. The Mountaineers failed to garner an at-large bid. Syracuse also failed to get a bid out of the Big East, which had five other teams besides the Panthers reach the NCAA tournament in Georgetown, Louisville, Marquette, Notre Dame and Villanova.
West Virginia accepted an NIT bid and will host Delaware State in an East region game on Tuesday with the time to be announce.
Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon admitted he did not know much about Wright State immediately following the announcement but promised the team would know all about them in time for Thursday’s match-up, which will be in Buffalo, N.Y. at the HSBC Arena where the Buffalo Sabres play.
Coincidentally, Dixon had an interview for the Raiders’ head coaching position while an assistant at Pitt.
“I don’t know too much about the team, but we’ll start watching film on them right away,” Dixon said. “I never went after the job but I was approached by Wright State and if someone calls you, the most-professional thing to do is at least listen to what they have to say.”
He figured following Saturday night’s loss that Pitt’s seeding would depend on the conference championship game with the winner getting a number-two seed and the loser getting a number-three seed. His prediction came true as Georgetown received a number two seed.
He was thrilled with Pitt’s seeding as were the players after they learned their fate.
“You’re never disappointed with a three-seed,” Dixon said. “We had our highest ever RPI this year and also played more road games, so we knew we put ourselves in a position to receive a favorable seed.”
Senior Aaron Gray felt the upcoming NCAA Tournament is a good opportunity for the Panthers to re-focus their efforts and put Saturday night’s loss to the Hoyas to rest.
“That wasn’t University of Pittsburgh basketball Saturday night and it wasn’t me Saturday night either,” Gray said. “Seeing us get the respect to earn a number-three seed in the NCAA Tournament helped to restore some of our confidence and I can’t wait to get back to work and get ready for Wright State.”
The Panthers are favored to advance and provided that happens, they will face the winner of the sixth-seeded Duke-eleventh-seeded Virginia Commonwealth game. Should Pitt get past the Blue Devils, the probable Sweet Sixteen opponent would be second-seeded UCLA coached by former Pitt head coach Ben Howland.
Since the Panthers were seeded in the West Bracket, they would have to travel to San Jose in the third round.
“When I saw the brackets a lot of things went through my mind,” senior forward Levon Kendall said. “I always wanted to play Duke, and UCLA with Coach Howland there would be a lot of fun.”
The Panthers advanced to the “Sweet Sixteen” in 2002, 2003, and 2004. Kendall stated one team goal this year was to make it further in the tournament.
“Being only one of 12 teams to make the tournament 6 years in a row shows the respect our program gets,” Kendall said. “One of our goals is to make it further in the tournament now.”
West Virginia was considered a bubble team and many thought Syracuse was a sure thing.
“I spoke to (conference chairman) Mike Tranghese on the phone this morning and we never even considered that Syracuse would not make it,” Dixon said. “We thought there could have been as high as nine teams in with Providence and West Virginia making it.”