NCAA Tournament Projections / Bracketology: Pitt men's basketball left out of Joe Lunardi's latest bracket

On Wednesday, I wrote about the Pitt women's basketball team being projected to make the NCAA Tournament. ESPN's Joe Lunardi also released his first Bracketology of the season (outside of his preseason one in November) for the men and the Pitt team didn't fare nearly as well as their counterpart.

Pitt was not projected to make the NCAA Tournament. In fact, the Panthers weren't even close. Not only did the team fail to make Lunardi's first four out list, but also the next four out as well.

Don't head for your nearest bridge just yet and obviously, we've still got a long way to go. One big win by the Panthers could even be enough to vault them into the bracket, after all. Part of the problem is that Pitt lacks a statement win and their 11-4 record, as a result, looks fairly unimpressive. In the ACC, the Panthers have several more chances to improve their stock.

Also, keep in mind that by the time this gets posted, we'll have been a few days removed from when the projections were released. TCU, for example, is one of his first eight teams out. They were 13-1 at the time, but just lost a game to Kansas State - a team that Pitt beat by 23 points. UNLV, also in his first eight out, just lost their third straight game and, while they beat Arizona, are now only 9-6. Lunardi may very well put Pitt in that list if you asked him about it this very instant and the list is always fluid.

For selfish reasons, of course, we want Pitt to get in. And having the chance to play in Pittsburgh, since the City is hosting some of the games, as they did a while back would be great.

To get int, though, Pitt has a lot of work to do, according to Lunardi.

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