Syracuse And Pittsburgh Meet In Possible Win Or Go Home

Pittsburgh and Syracuse will meet in the ACC Tournament Wednesday, March 9 at noon, in a matchup that could determine who will make the NCAA Tournament.

Orange Square Off With Panthers With Possible NCAA Tourney Berth

The two rivals meet with both teams having 19 wins, but Syracuse has 12 losses to compared to Pittsburgh’s 10 and the Panthers have beaten Syracuse in both of their meetings this season. There are a lot of people who fell if the Orange lose to the Panthers three times, they should no be in the tourney this year.
ESPN analyst Joe Lunardi currently has Syracuse as one of his ‘Last Four In,’ which means Syracuse would play Monmouth for the 11th seed in the West Region, and the winner would then play Wisconsin in Providence during the Round of 64.  Lunardi has Pittsburgh as one of his teams on bubble watch, meaning they can still hope for an at-large bid.

Syracuse has had an up and down season so far.  After early season wins against Connecticut and Texas A&M, Syracuse lo consecutive games to likely tourney teams Wisconsin and Georgetown, they also dropped a game to lowly St. John’s. The Orange are also really struggling recently, dropping four of their last five games, with the only win coming against N.C. State.

Pittsburgh has had more than their share of problems with good teams this year.  The Panthers only have one win over a ranked opponent, Duke on February 28, and have only been competitive in a pair of their losses out of six matchups with ranked teams.

The ACC squads have played nearly identical schedules, ‘Cuse’s strength of schedule (SOS) is 42, while Pitt has a SOS rating of 43.  Another reason many feel this is a win or go home game is that the loser will drop to under .500 in conference play.  Both teams are 9-9 in the ACC, so even a close loss could push either team off of the bubble and into the NIT.