Season's final games will offer additional insight into present, future of Pitt program

The calendar, finally, has turned to March, and the madness that has been Pitt’s season soon will end.

But the remaining games — starting Saturday at Notre Dame and continuing Tuesday with Pitt’s ACC Tournament opener — are not meaningless.

Keeping watch over the game will be TV cameras, announcers, referees, fans and Pitt coaches evaluating players for the future of the program. So, the game matters.

Here are some points to ponder in advance of the 2:30 p.m. tipoff Saturday in South Bend, Ind., on ESPN News:

1. Planting seeds

Depending on the outcome of five of the seven ACC games Saturday, Pitt (11-19, 6-13) will finish 11th, 12th or 13th. The only two that won’t have an impact on the bottom of the standings are Syracuse at Miami and North Carolina at Duke.

Potential first-round opponents for Pitt are Louisville, Clemson, Boston College, Georgia Tech and N.C. State. Pitt has a collective 3-4 record against those teams.

Would Pitt, secretly, like to avoid Clemson? It’s difficult to tell. The Tigers beat the Panthers, 75-48, then lost seven of eight before building their current three-game winning streak.

2. Can they prove it?

Strong showings over the next several days will give credibility to what many people believe: Coach Jeff Capel did not lose his team during the 10-game stretch that produced only three victories.

Senior Mouhamadou Gueye said players are still engaged.

“We’ve been through a lot of things throughout the season,” he said. “Guys did what they (could) to stay together. Show up every single day. That’s what coach Capel told us from Day 1. Make no excuses, regardless of whatever circumstances we had.”

Pitt has lost the past two games by margins of 21 and 30 points while allowing a total of 171. Was that merely a product of playing Miami and Duke, two of the best teams in the conference? Or, are players weary of a mostly miserable season?

3. He came along too late

Gueye, a transfer from Stony Brook, has turned into a thoughtful leader off the court and a productive player in a variety of areas when he laces up the sneakers.

At 6-foot-10, 200 pounds, he is one of two players in the nation with 40 or more 3-pointers and 60-plus blocks. He’ll take a stat sheet with 40 3s and 63 blocks into Saturday’s game.

Gueye, who will exhaust his eligibility at season’s end, has been on campus for less than a year. He talks like he has been staring at the Cathedral of Learning for five years.

“You have to believe. You have to be selfless,” he said. “You have to know that every time you put on this jersey, every time you step on the court, you’re not only doing it for yourself, you’re doing it for your teammates, your coaches, the fans, your family.”

One of Capel’s biggest regrets is that Gueye’s name didn’t appear in the transfer portal sooner.

4. Burton vs. Boeheim

One race to watch Saturday will be for the ACC free-throw title.

Pitt’s Jamarius Burton, another of Capel’s astute transfer pickups, leads the conference at 88.6%, closely followed by Syracuse’s Buddy Boeheim (88.1%).

Burton, who has made his past 18 in a row, is shooting 90.5% (57 of 63) in conference games.

Even better news: He has another year of eligibility remaining.

5. How to build a winner

A final note from the Duke game Tuesday night, offering insight into the type of player Capel likes to have in his program:

Duke freshmen Paolo Banchero and Trevor Keels combined to shoot 17 of 25 against Pitt, but Capel was more intrigued by what they did after the ball went through the cords.

“They made unbelievable shots and never one time did they celebrate,” he said. “They were businesslike. ‘This is what I do. Let me go back and play defense.’

“That was really impressive, especially for two young guys.”