Sign up for one of our email newsletters.
Updated less than a minute ago
Pitt coach Kevin Stallings has plenty to do while preparing for his team's next game Wednesday at Wake Forest.
How to stop the Demon Deacons' John Collins tops the list. He has a streak of 10 consecutive 20-point games after getting 31 points and 16 rebounds — his 13th double-double — in a 99-94 loss at Duke on Saturday.
Stallings' defense found a way to stop Florida State's most productive player in Saturday's 80-66 victory, holding Dwayne Bacon without a point after he had scored in double digits in 35 consecutive games.
There's a lot of work to be done, but perhaps when Stallings turns off the video machine, he will find time to lobby Pitt administers for those popular retro uniforms.
After he pointed to the special blue and gold throwbacks as one of the motivating factors against No. 17 Florida State, Stallings was asked how his team might play Wednesday in regular uniforms.
“Who says we're going back to regular uniforms?” he said, maybe only half-jokingly.
Pitt's season has entered its critical stage — it's been there for two weeks, actually — with four games leading up to the ACC Tournament, starting March 7 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. The Panthers (15-12, 4-10) can use every available edge, even those that sound artificial.
After Wake Forest, which is 9-3 at home, Pitt plays its final game at Petersen Events Center on Saturday against ACC leader North Carolina. Then, it's on the road again — where Pitt is 2-5 on hostile courts — to Georgia Tech and Virginia to finish the regular season.
“The Zoo's not going to be there, I'm pretty sure,” Stallings said of Wednesday's game in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Support for the Panthers suddenly increased in the Florida State game with the largest home crowd of the season (10,525). Many of them left calculating the odds of Pitt reaching the NCAA Tournament.
Senior Sheldon Jeter, who scored a career-high 29 against Florida State, insisted the team has no plans to settle for an NIT berth.
Pitt has a 55 RPI ranking and owns quality victories against nationally ranked Maryland, Virginia and Florida State and lost by only two at North Carolina. The latter three schools were included Feb. 11 in the men's basketball committee's first in-season look at the top 16 seeds in the bracket.
Pitt probably needs to win its last four regular-season games — the loss last week to Virginia Tech makes winning out almost a necessity — and then win at least one in the ACC Tournament. A pre-NCAA record of 19-14 might be hard sell to the committee, but 20-13 has a better look. Two victories in Brooklyn would increase the possibility of inclusion into the 68-team NCAA field.
First, Stallings must figure out a way to build off the Florida State victory. Working in Pitt's favor might be a leaky Wake Forest defense, which has allowed an average of 89.6 points in its five most recent losses over the past eight games.
“You know what?” Stallings said when asked about sustaining momentum. “I'm hopeful, and I don't know if anxious is the right word. I'm hopeful that we can try to help these guys and can play our best basketball here the last two or three weeks of the season.
“It would be fun to go down and get a road win, but, obviously, they've been tough at home, especially, all year long. They've been tough, period, so we'll have our work cut out for us.”
Jerry DiPaola is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at jdipaola@tribweb.com or via Twitter @JDiPaola_Trib.
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
