CBS: Pitt Still Outside NCAA Tournament Field
PITTSBURGH -- The Pitt Panthers have fought and clawed their way back onto the NCAA Tournament bubble by winning 10 of their last 13 games and after stacking another double-digit win, they're drawing closer to cracking the field.
CBS Sports bracketologist Jerry Palm released a new set of NCAA Tournament projections following Pitt's 78-63 win over Florida State, and he had the Panthers pegged as one of the "First Four Out" alongside Iowa, Seton Hall and Villanova.
If those are their peers on the bubble, Pitt should feel good about their position. It has the highest win total and second-highest NET ranking of those four. The Panthers still have a home game against NC State left on the regular season schedule and a trip to the ACC Tournament standing in between them and Selection Sunday.
Pitt and their neighbors in the First Four Out are chasing Utah, New Mexico, Colorado and St. John's - the First Four In. The Panthers have as many wins as Colorado and one fewer than New Mexico and their NET ranking is higher than Utah's.
Palm has four ACC teams in his current projected field. North Carolina is a No. 2 seed in the East region, Duke a No. 3 in the South and Clemson as a No. 6 and Virginia as a No. 10 in the West. Wake Forest
Pitt still has work to do but they've drawn increasingly close to earning an at-large bid to the big dance for the second year in a row.
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