Pitt's run in the ACC Tournament came to an end today with a 51-48 loss at the hands of top-seeded Virginia.
The loss is hardly a bad one so I don't think the Panthers' NCAA Tournament seed will be affected at all - wherever they were coming in, they'll likely remain. But what Pitt did miss out on was the chance to improve its position. A win today certainly improves their seed. Heck, Seth Davis, who still inexplicably had the Panthers on the bubble as of today may have even admitted they were in by that point. Okay, probably not.
I digress -
Not much you can say here. A few calls didn't go Pitt's way, but it was a pretty evenly called game. Pitt fans wanted a foul on the James Robinson layup at the end but conveniently left out the fact that Lamar Patterson got a no call after he severely bumped a Virginia player on the play before that one. The refs let them play and that was fine by me.
Really frustrating for me to see Pitt not crack 50 points either time against Virginia. They have the nation's No. 1 defense, but even there, they're holding teams to 55 a night - Pitt has had 46 1/2 over their two games and that's just flat out annoying.
Leading the annoying category for me was Lamar Patterson again. He's Pitt's best player and most of us realize that but I'm not sure I've seen such a good player throw up virtual goose eggs for entire first halves. Patterson was a non-factor offensively and Pitt can't beat great defensive teams when they're playing without him on offense for 20 minutes. He had two first-half points and that's just not going to cut it. This is a good team, but they aren't that good.
Wasn't just Lamar - don't want to make it sound that way. Bench scored five points on 2-11 shooting and contributed only three assists/rebounds. Mike Young two points and two rebounds. Cam Wright two points and an ill-advised turnover late. But Patterson's the star. He can't simply continue to disappear for stretches of 20 minutes and then try to turn it on when the Panthers are in trouble.
Commence seeding debates/shenanigans.
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