Pitt/Wake Forest matchup stands as rich opportunity for winning team

Aware of the reality or not, Pitt and Wake Forest are creeping into national relevance. Which means the prize will be potentially rich for the winner and consequences dire for the loser when those teams meet Tuesday night in Winston-Salem, N.C.

You don’t score 41 points — even against a last-place team — without the college basketball nation noticing. No one should be surprised Wake Forest coach Steve Forbes said Monday that Pitt’s Blake Hinson is “playing at an All-American level.”

Hinson’s 41 points Saturday against Louisville constituted the most scored by a Pitt player at Petersen Events Center and third-most among Panthers all-time in one game. His nine 3-pointers tied the program record he set earlier this season at West Virginia.

Meanwhile, from a team standpoint, Pitt is listed as one of the “next four out” of Fox Sports bracket forecaster Mike DeCourcy’s latest NCAA Tournament projection. DeCourcy will update his projections Tuesday hours before tipoff.

Also for the first time this season, Pitt received voting points (four) in the Associated Press Top 25 poll. Jeff Welsch of Lee Enterprises in Lee, Mont., ranked Pitt No. 22.

Wake Forest (16-9, 8-6 ACC) joins Pitt (17-8, 8-6)) and N.C. State (16-9, 8-6) on the tournament bubble and in a tie for fourth place in the ACC behind No. 8 Duke, No. 10 North Carolina and Virginia. But the Demon Deacons may be slipping slightly after consecutive losses at Duke and Virginia. ESPN’s Joe Lunardi lists Wake Forest as the “first team out” of his bracketology while Pitt is a rung below in Lunardi’s “next four out.”

Among the schools sitting on that precarious bubble with Pitt and Wake Forest are Seton Hall, Cincinnati, Utah, St. John’s, Colorado and Villanova. So, St. John’s coach Rick Pitino’s statement Sunday after a 68-62 loss to Seton Hall may bode well for the winner Tuesday in Winston-Salem. Said Pitino: “This has been the most unenjoyable experience I’ve had since I’ve been coaching.”

pic.twitter.com/8iOXj403Cr

— Joe Lunardi (@ESPNLunardi) February 18, 2024

Not that Forbes cares a wit about Pitino, St. John’s or Lunardi.

“We could be on the positive side (of the bubble) on Wednesday and be off of it on Thursday,” said Forbes, noting the daily changes in the NCAA Net rankings that are among the tournament committee’s considerations through Selection Sunday (March 17).

“I just think it’s a really big game because we’re playing a really good team,” he said of the game at Winston-Salem’s Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum, where Wake Forest is 13-0.

“You just have to play these games one at a time. I just think you have to win, and I think it’s most important that we just concentrate on playing a team that’s won five games in a row and won games at Duke and Virginia and is 6-2 on the road.

“We have to talk more about that than what some bracketologist says we’re at.”

Likewise, Pitt coach Jeff Capel doesn’t waste any time thinking about what others say about his players, even if it’s positive stuff. He said Hinson is not affected by such things as his second ACC Player of the Week honor after he scored a total of 68 points in victories last week against Virginia and Louisville.

“Blake is the same every day,” he said. “That’s one of the beautiful things about him. He’s just about being a really good teammate and being locked in on what we’re trying to do and trying to help us win.

“He doesn’t get caught up in that stuff. I don’t think he pays attention to it. I really haven’t heard the guys talk about it. He just takes the day that’s in front of him and tries to make the best of that day.”

Forbes said he thought Pitt was playing well when the Panthers defeated his team 77-72 last month at the Pete — the start of the five-game winning streak. He knows what a victory Tuesday would mean for either team.

“These are the opportunities that we want this late in the year,” he said, “so we can play our way in and play our way to the double bye, which I think is really important in the (ACC) tournament.”

Wake Forest lost to Virginia on Saturday by the unlikely score of 49-47 after shooting only 34.5% from the field.

“I see this team every day. I know how well they can shoot it,” Forbes said. “At the end of the day, you have to go out and do it. We lost to Duke and Virginia. A lot of teams are going to do that. We have to stay focused on where we’re going, not where we’ve been.”