With Postseason Play Underway Pitt Continues to Improve

It’s tournament time.

With the Big East tournament having already tipped off this week and the NCAA tournament less than a week away, the most exciting time in college sports (and maybe all sports) is under way. The Panthers have the luxury of being spectators for the first two days in Madison Square Garden as they earned the No. 2 seed and a double-bye in the tournament.

They will face either Providence, Seton Hall or Notre Dame in the quarterfinals. The team is being projected as a No. 3 seed right now in the NCAA tournament and that’s probably where they’ll end up barring a Big East Tournament championship or a loss in their first game.

Who would’ve thought that this Pitt team would enter the Big East tournament with the same seed that it came into New York with last season? I know I didn’t.

 But the fact is that they barely lost stride from last season behind the huge improvements of just about every player on the roster. Sophomore guard Ashton Gibbs was recognized as the Most Improved Player in the Big East, but if the league ranked its top ten most improved players I would guess that guys like Gary McGhee and Brad Wanamaker would appear on that list possibly along with Nasir Robinson as well.

After the Rutgers game on Saturday coach Jamie Dixon said his team has improved more than any other team in the country this season and that their goal was to continue their improvement in the post-season. The Panthers are going to be a better team a week from today and that should have its opponents in the upcoming brackets very worried.

If Pitt didn’t win one more game this season I would still consider it a success as they already surpassed everyone’s expectations, but I’ll venture to say that they’ll win again. In fact, I think it’s time that everyone start viewing this team as a serious contender and a team that could make it to the Final Four in Indianapolis.