Pitt Take 5: Final 3 games before ACC Tournament should not be overlooked

Interest in Pitt’s final three regular-season games isn’t the same as it would have been if the Panthers had defeated either Wake Forest or Clemson.

At this point, no one wants to hear the initials N-I-T when N-C-A-A are the only letters that really matter in March.

Nonetheless, Pitt has a chance to finish in the upper half of the ACC — sixth or seventh — and take 21 victories into the conference tournament. Pitt plays at 11th-place Boston College (15-13, 6-11) on Saturday before finishing up at home against Florida State and N.C. State. Pitt, FSU and N.C. State are tied for seventh place entering the weekend.

Meanwhile, here are five thoughts to ponder:

1. Hey, it’s only a layup

Pitt coach Jeff Capel presented an interesting what-if scenario about the first half of the Clemson loss.

Pitt had a 27-20 lead when the Panthers missed what Capel called “a wide-open layup. That was the seventh one.”

“If we had made the layups at that point, it would have been 41-20. That game’s probably over, not that Clemson wouldn’t have continued to fight, but if you have that kind of lead …

“We have to be able to finish. That’s the part that is most disappointing. I wish I could tell you why we missed them. Some of them were wide open. I don’t know. It was weird. It just happens sometimes.”

Overall, Capel said Pitt missed nine layups in the game.

2. Watch those collisions

Capel said his players did not lack physicality against Clemson, but he said, “I thought (the Tigers) were more physical. We just weren’t able to be as physical as they were.”

He explained thusly:

“It’s a minute, 30 left. It’s a one-point game, and we get a guy (Federiko Federiko) who almost gets his ribs cracked on a cross screen. How do you fight through that when it’s a cheap shot? Maybe we can wear some rib pads. I don’t know.”

Bottom line, however, is Capel said an opponent playing physical is no excuse for losing.

“We have to be able to fight through physicality. That’s who they are,” he said of the Tigers. “That’s what they pride their program on.

“We have to be better. We have to be able to play in any type of environment, whatever style. We’ve been pretty good with that. For whatever reason in that game, especially the last 20 minutes, we were not.”

3. Beware of Boston College

It might be easy for fans to overlook Boston College, now that the Eagles have lost five of their past seven. But Pitt can’t afford that luxury.

The Eagles have one of the ACC’s best big men in 7-foot, 235-pound Quinten Post.

“He looks like he’s in better shape, shooting the basketball from 3 really, really well (43.4%),” Capel said.

Post is 10th in ACC in points per game (16.2), ninth in rebounds (7.8) and fourth in shooting percentage (50.5%).

“He’s like their team: He’s physical,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said. “That’s something they’ve always excelled at. He’s really rugged inside, has inside, outside game.”

Boston College beat visiting Virginia last season 63-48, but the Cavaliers returned to Chestnut Hill on Wednesday and won 72-68.

In the latter game, Post had a double-double (24 points, 10 rebounds, 11 for 11 from the free-throw line).

4. Planning ahead

The ACC is already planning for the 2024-25 season when California, Stanford and SMU will make it an 18-team conference for basketball.

Pitt will play home and away against North Carolina, Syracuse and Louisville, with the other seven games at the Pete against Boston College, Cal, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Miami, Stanford and Virginia.

Road trips include Duke, Florida State, N.C. State, Notre Dame, SMU, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest.

The only problem: Only 15 schools qualify for the ACC Tournament. How embarrassing to finish 16th, 17th or 18th and have to sit out the conference tournament.

5. City Game in the NIT?

This suggestion would not be well-received inside the basketball offices at Petersen Events Center, but here’s one the NIT organizers might want to consider:

Pitt vs. Duquesne.

It’s happened once before in the NIT, a 65-63 Duquesne victory March 6, 1980, at Civic Arena.

Enthusiasm for the matchup has waned since the most recent City Game in 2018, a 74-53 Pitt victory that attracted a crowd of 12,246 to PPG Paints Arena. Pitt has won 17 of the past 18 City Games.

There’s a decent chance it would match two 20-victory teams against each other, with Pitt (18-10, 9-8) and the Dukes (17-11, 7-8) each having three regular-season games, plus their conference tournaments, left on the schedule.

Admittedly, 1980 was a long time ago. In those days, players from both teams knew each other well from their summertime playground battles, raising the intensity level when they met for real during the season. Today, the only regular with local roots on either team is Duquesne’s Jake DiMichele of McKees Rocks.

Yes, it’s an unrealistic notion, but there’s nothing wrong with a little nostalgia. Remember when then-Pitt coach Jamie Dixon called it “a special game for us”?

One other point: If the teams had met this season at PPG, it might have stood as a Quad 2 opportunity for Pitt. Duquesne is ranked 101st in the NCAA Net.

Instead, Pitt opened its season against North Carolina A&T, ranked No. 337.