Joe Lunardi's ESPN Bracket drops Pitt to No. 6 seed in latest NCAA Tournament projections

Pitt has gone from a team on a huge roll to one sliding every so slightly. The basketball squad started out 17-1 and had won six straight games heading into the colossal matchup with Syracuse a couple of weeks back. Since then, though, they've gone only 2-2 with losses to the Orange and, most recently, Duke.

Losing to two ranked teams, including maybe the best team in the nation, is hardly a reason to hang your head if you're a Pitt fan. Still, 2-2 is still only .500 no matter the opponent.

ESPN's Joe Lunardi really had no choice but to drop Pitt in his latest NCAA Tournament bracket projections on Thursday ... and that's what he did in dropping the Panthers to a No. 6 seed. Based on the rankings, that's probably about where Pitt deserves to be as the team should slide a few spots in the polls to near the bottom of the Top 25 after their loss to Duke.

How the Panthers respond against Virginia tomorrow will have a big say so in whether Pitt continues to be ranked. Another loss likely drops the team from the Top 25 and could mean they fall even farther in Lunardi's next projections.

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