Pittsburgh Basketball: Key takeaways from 2022-23 ACC schedule release
The league schedule for Pittsburgh Basketball has been released for the upcoming season. What are some positions and negatives to take away?
When it comes to the ACC, it’s been rough for Pittsburgh Basketball. They’ve won just six games in league play in each of the past three years and haven’t finished over .500 overall. The hope is that after a strong offseason roster-wise, the team can take a step forward and become postseason contenders.
With the non-conference schedule already out for the Panthers, the full ACC schedule has followed. It’s 20 opponents for the team, including most of them twice. But between the timing of the games and the unbalanced nature of it, how did Pitt do overall? Here’s a closer look at the league schedule for the Panthers.
Panthers got solid draw with the double-matchups
Due to the unbalanced schedule, each ACC has six opponents that they play both home and away. For Pittsburgh, they got North Carolina, Miami, Florida State, Syracuse, Georgia Tech, and Louisville. The Tar Heels are the preseason favorites in both the league and nationally, while both Miami and FSU are projected top-half ACC teams.
Syracuse, Pitt’s rival in the conference, is always a situation where they split the season series, regardless of the talent level on both sides. As for the Cardinals and Yellow Jackets, they’re potentially the two worst teams in the conference this upcoming season and are the most likely wins for Pitt to get. It could be four wins for the team and the easiest way for them to rack up league victories.
Tough opening 6 games
In a power conference, there’s never going to be an easy stretch in league play, especially when you’re a projected bottom-half team. But the hope for a team like Pitt is that they can get some momentum early on. It’ll be tough this season, starting off with two road games at NC State and Syracuse. An 0-2 start would be rough so the Panthers must find a way to at least split there.
The next three are at home (UNC, Virginia, Clemson) but the students will be on break. And with a road matchup at Duke following that, the Panthers will need to win two of the three, with that Cavaliers matchup being important. If they can manage a 3-3 split through these six games, that’ll be good progress for them.
Winnable final stretch, if they can break the curse
Like many teams that aren’t in the NCAA Tournament picture in February, the Panthers have had losing streaks to end the regular season, regardless of how strong the opponent is. But after a road game versus the Tar Heels, the final eight games are fairly winnable for them. It includes home games against Boston College, Louisville, Georgia Tech, and Syracuse. And even the road games (FSU, Virginia Tech, Notre Dame, Miami) aren’t impossible either.
Next. Preseason ACC power rankings for 2022-23 season. dark
If Pittsburgh Basketball truly has improved this offseason, a 4-4 result here should be the bare minimum. And they’ll have to avoid another late-season slide. It’ll have implications for the program overall, including whether or not there will be any postseason hopes.