Pitt-North Carolina: Open Gamethread

Pitt has played a few close games lately but has still come up short each time and remains winless in the ACC (8-15 overall). Things don’t expect to get much easier today, facing the No. 19 North Carolina Tar Heels on the road.

The big storyline coming in, of course, is that the Panthers will be facing former player Cam Johnson. Cam’s exit was a messy one as he forced his way out despite objections from the school that requested he transfer out of conference. Eventually Pitt relented and allowed him to go to North Carolina and I’m sure there will be no shortage of mentions of that today.

By most indicators, the Panthers look to be getting better. That’s a relative term, of course. But Pitt lost by only four to NC State in a game they should have won, lost by only five to Syracuse, and after holding a second half lead against Miami, lost that game by 12.

All of that said, it’s difficult to take too much satisfaction in it. If Pitt had won a couple of conference games aside from those, I think it would be easier to declare this team ready to make a jump next season. But as they still sit winless, I’m not sure anything but a victory at some point will help all that much with fan perception.

Game time is at 8:00 p.m.

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