Bracketology 2023: Pittsburgh, West Virginia among Wednesday’s biggest winners

Pittsburgh Panthers

It’s been a season few expected from the Panthers. They were effectively without their best player (John Hugley) all season and lost their best newcomer (Dior Johnson) for the year as well. But out of nowhere, Pittsburgh was able to win 20+ games in the regular season, including signature wins over Virginia, Miami, and just as surprising, Northwestern on the road.

What has hurt the Panthers were two key factors. One was the ACC being historically bad from top-to-bottom analytically, struggling to even get one team in the top 30 according to KenPom. And the pair of wins against North Carolina doesn’t look as strong considering their own struggles. The team also has a pair of bad losses against Notre Dame and Florida State that has hurt them.

After losing to the Irish and Miami last week, Pittsburgh was the 5-seed in the ACC Tournament and faced a 6-man Georgia Tech squad that had been playing well as of late. The Panthers had a 13-point halftime that was erased in the second half and it was an upset alert. However, Pittsburgh got the 89-81 win, thanks to 21 points and eight assists from Jaramius Burton.

It’s just a Quad 3 win but more importantly, not a Quad 3 loss. And they’re in a good spot on the bubble. Without many bubble thieves this time around, it’s hard to see a pathway for Pittsburgh falling out of the field of 68, even with a loss to Duke on Thursday. Jeff Capel was the ACC Coach of the Year and now gets to go dancing.