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Updated 5 hours ago

Please don't ask Pitt coach Kevin Stallings to engage in this wild “run” talk that's starting to creep into conversation about his basketball team.

It gained a bit of traction Saturday when Pitt (14-11, 3-9 ACC) defeated Syracuse, 80-75, at Petersen Events Center.

After the game, players yelled “This is No. 2” on their way to the locker room, indicating the win streak ­— modest as it is — reached two games. The idea going forward is to win the remaining six games, get to 20 victories entering the ACC Tournament and then see if the NCAA (unlikely) or the NIT (perhaps) committees might be interested.

That's asking a lot, considering three of those games are against teams standing 1-2-3 in the ACC (North Carolina, Virginia and Florida State).

Yet, when senior Michael Young was asked if the team believes strongly it can win all six, he answered with one word, “Yes.”

Next question.

Stallings, like all coaches, is more pragmatic. He has no desire to pour additional pressure on his team by publicly stating it must win every game through the end of the regular season.

“You'll find out I'm not very good at speculating,” he said. “I don't care to waste time on it. I'll answer questions as honestly as I can. It'd be great to make a run. I'd love to. But the run for me consists of trying to get ready to play well against Virginia Tech on Tuesday.

“If we can win that game, then maybe we'll play on Saturday (against Florida State).”

Pitt, with an RPI that jumped from 57 to 52, continues its three-game home stretch against Virginia Tech (17-7, 6-6) and against Florida State (21-5, 9-4) on Saturday. The Seminoles are No. 14 in the Associated Press poll, No. 11 in the RPI.

Pitt started digging the hole in which it resides when it lost by 26 and 55 points to Miami and Louisville in a 10-day span last month. Almost surprisingly, the team stayed together and, by all accounts, kept working hard and never stopped listening to its coach. Stallings likes the attitude but is taking nothing for granted.

“It's gotten better,” he said of his team's buy-in to his way of coaching. “I don't want to be naïve and just think we won and so there is a little more buy-in. For whatever, reason we are playing better.”

But there are encouraging signs.

In the Syracuse game, Young didn't wear the mask that was protecting the orbital bone he broke only a month ago; Jamel Artis played 37 minutes on a sore ankle. Together, they combined for 37 points, 16 assists and 12 rebounds.

“If we play a little bit harder and get a little bit better,” Young said, “we'll be all right.”

Stallings said working hard is the least the players can do for themselves.

“For us, we always talked about great effort is the price of admission, the price of having a uniform,” he said. “That's something we should be able to expect as coaches, and now we're getting it a little more.”

Young said the team's spirit was uplifted in the past two weeks while losing close games to North Carolina and Duke, immediately followed by victories against Boston College and Syracuse. Another against one of the ACC leaders would be an even bigger indicator of progress.

“We built on how hard we played, how hard we concentrated and our desire to win (in the losses) and brought it into the next two games (victories),” Young said.

“When you are at the bottom of the league and no one is taking you seriously and you're getting blown out consecutive games in a row, that hits your pride. And once your pride gets hit, you have to man up or shut up.”

Jerry DiPaola is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at jdipaola@tribweb.com or via Twitter @JDiPaola_Trib.

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