At one point this season, there wasn’t any question concerning whether Pittsburgh Basketball would make the NCAA Tournament or not. They started the 2024-25 campaign off great at 12-2 and 3-0 in ACC play, including a blowout win over rival West Virginia and a comeback victory at Ohio State.
But the start of the new year and league play has gone bad for the Panthers. They lost four straight games at one point, including close home defeats to Clemson and Louisville. The hope was that a comeback home win over North Carolina a couple of weeks ago would spark a push back to the Big Dance. That didn’t happen, with the team losing at home to Virginia and another close game at Wake Forest to follow suit.
This past weekend, the Panthers were at North Carolina with a Quad 1 road opportunity. But like with the other close games, Pitt lost 67-66 at the very end, with an Ismael Leggett jumper failing to fall. That puts, the team at 14-9 overall, 5-7 in a weak ACC, and with just one Quad 1, leaving their resume on the wrong side of every projected Bracketology field.
Jeff Capel repeated what he said Saturday night about Damian Dunn's fractured elbow. "Most likely, he's done for the season." He'll see a specialist when the team returns to Pittsburgh after the SMU game Tuesday night.
— Jerry DiPaola (@JDiPaola_Trib) February 10, 2025
But the biggest loss came towards the end of the game, with senior guard Damian Dunn going down with an elbow injury. And while it’s not official, the initial prognosis seems to indicate that he’s done for the year.
Dunn, a transfer from Houston, averaged 10 ppg for the Panthers. He already missed six games with a thumb injury and is one of the few guys on the roster that can create offense for himself. With him out, look for freshmen Brandin Cummings and Amsal Delalic to get more minutes in the rotation, along with both Diaz-Graham brothers in bigger lineups.
The Panthers have another Quad 1 road opportunity this week, taking on SMU. But they’ll be without a key player going forward and with little hope of rebounding to get back onto the bubble.