ESPN's Joe Lunardi says Pitt 'in' NCAA Tournament

For the past couple of weeks we've looked at Pitt's NCAA Tournament projections with a good deal of regularity. Pitt has remained mostly a team declared as 'in' if they defeated Syracuse in the ACC Tournament, but ESPN's Joe Lunardi shook that up a bit in his last Bracketology projections earlier today. There, he pushed the team to the play-in game and, in theory, potentially out altogether just because those teams represent the final four slots.

That was actually lower than his projection before the Pitt-Syracuse game (where he had the team avoiding the play-in game) and left many scratching their heads about the Panthers' chances to get in. But after today's loss against North Carolina, Lunardi still believes Pitt is in, as he stated in this video clip.

Lunardi, for those too busy to click on the link, does believe the play-in game is a possibility for the Panthers, saying they are basically on the cut line of the last four in and those teams immediately above them. However, he said it was between those two scenarios and, as a result, it doesn't sound as if it comes down to them making or missing the tournament at this point.

One scenario, which he acknowledged could cause some chaos, was if Georgia Tech or Virginia Tech would pull off huge upsets and one of them would win the ACC Tournament. Even in that situation, though, the ACC could simply end up with a seventh team getting in (Lunardi says that they are set right now to get six in).

Lunardi, and any other 'Bracketologist', for that matter, can't provide a complete guarantee that the Panthers will be in. But he's generally very accurate and his opinion that Pitt will make the field is a credible one.

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