Pittsburgh men’s basketball producing for bettors during win streak

BY SHANE JACKSON | Home Field Sports Contributor

The Pittsburgh Panthers are on a bit of a roll heading into the home stretch of the 2022-23 college basketball regular season.

Pittsburgh has won six games in a row and hasn’t lost since Jan. 21. The Panthers, who are 19-7 overall and 12-3 in the Atlantic Coast Conference, have a 19-6-1 record against the spread so far this season.

During this win streak, the Panthers have covered the spread in all but one game including the past five, which is notable since they have been a decent favorite in each of their past three outings.

Pitt was a 15-point favorite against Louisville in a 34-point win before securing an eight-point road victory over Florida State as a four-point favorite. Last time out, Pittsburgh was laying nine points on Valentine’s Day and recorded a 77-58 victory over Boston College.

Thanks to this impressive run, Pittsburgh is now in contention for an ACC regular-season title. Virginia remains the favorite with a price of -160 to win the conference, per FanDuel Sportsbook. Miami (+330) and Pittsburgh (+450) are the only other teams to be listed better than 13/1 to win the league.

Ken Pomeroy’s latest projections line up with those betting odds, as he has Virginia (19-4, 11-3 ACC) winning the conference at a 16-4 clip. Both the Hurricanes (15-5, 12-4) and Panthers are projected to finish right behind at 15-5.

The ACC is as weak as it has been in quite some time. In fact, KenPom currently rates it as the seventh-best league in the country, trailing the Mountain West Conference as of mid-February. But that parity has opened the door for teams like the Panthers, who have yet to win the ACC since joining the league in 2013-14.

Pittsburgh might have to be perfect over the final five games to have a shot at history, and the odds are stacked against Jeff Capel’s squad. The Panthers are projected to be an underdog in two of their final five contests: Saturday’s road matchup with Virginia Tech and the regular-season finale at Miami.

KenPom projects a 75-72 loss for Pittsburgh on Saturday. An upset would certainly adjust the conference odds, so it might be now or never to bet on the Panthers in this market at FanDuel.

Pittsburgh has been counted out before, covering in eight of its 11 games as an underdog and going 6-0 ATS when catching points away from home. Based on what we have seen, the Panthers might be the play on Saturday at anything +3 or better.

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