Kevin Keatts: Pitt Belongs in NCAA Tournament
PITTSBURGH -- After watching his team lose 81-73 to the Pitt Panthers on Saturday, NC State head coach Kevin Keatts came away with a positive impression of his opponent.
Keatts declared that he believes the Panthers are worthy of an NCAA Tournament bid while also propping up the ACC as a whole, stating that the conference deserves more consideration than it is currently receiving.
"I think they deserve it,” Keatts said. “I think we’ve got seven or eight teams that should be getting in the tournament. It’s unfortunate that ten teams are going to have to roll into Washington D.C. and try to win the tournament to go.”
With its win over the Wolfpack, Pitt locked up its first-ever double-bye in the ACC Tournament as the No. 4 seed with a 12-8 conference record. It will play the winner of No. 5 seed Wake Forest and either No. 12 seed Georgia Tech or No. 13 Notre Dame on Thursday at 2:30 EST.
The Panthers also kept its at-large hopes intact, though it will more than likely take a win or two in the conference tournament for them to land in the field. ESPN's Joe Lunardi placed Pitt among his Next Four Out at the beginning of the day on Saturday before ultimately moving them out of that category in his most recent projection, showing that there is more work to be done for the Panthers to have a shot.
Reiterating a previous point, Keatts commended Jeff Capel's work this season while further voicing his opinion that Pitt and a select few from elsewhere around the ACC have more compelling cases than other teams currently sitting on the bubble.
“I think Jeff’s done a really good job," Keatts said. "I think you can make a case for him and at least two or three more other teams that should be in compared to the ones that they’re saying are gonna get in.”
Capel himself stated that he doesn't pay much attention to his team's resume, though he did acknowledge the fact that this year's Panthers squad owns better marks in several key metrics than last season's team, who won two contests in the Big Dance.
"If you look, our numbers are better this year than they were last year," Capel said. "If you look at the - what someone told me on my staff; I never look at them. But from what they told me, we’re higher in the NET and KenPom and things like that. So, I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t worry about it. I really and truly don’t. Because I can’t control it. So, I try not to give it much thought."
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