Seniors to be Honored During Pitt Game

(Pitt at State; Reynolds Coliseum; 2 PM, Sunday, February 26th; ACCNX)

This to me is a must win game for State. With Syracuse's crushing win at Pitt Thursday night and State's loss at Duke, State has fallen to ninth place in the conference standings. With a win Sunday by State, both Syracuse and State will end conference play with 9 and 9 records, but because State defeated Syracuse January 1st 56-54, State holds the tiebreaker and thus gets 8th place. No matter, if I am correct, State and Syracuse will play each other in the second round of the ACC Tournament on Thursday, probably around 2:30 p.m. All Tournament games will be on the ACCN except for the championship game-no Regional Sports Network.

Why is this game a must win game? Actually, I think that not only is this game a must win game for State to get an invite to the NCAA Tournament, but a win over Syracuse on Thursday is likewise. While State's NET of 19 and their NET quad 1 record of 6-9 at this time is good enough for an invite, State may not pass the "smell test" with losses to Pitt and Syracuse or maybe just with a loss to Pitt. If State loses Sunday and Thursday will the NCAA Selection Committee invite a team which lost 7 of their last 9 games? By the way, I think we beat both Pitt Sunday even if Diamond Johnson does not play and Syracuse Thursday if Diamond does play. State may be able to beat Syracuse Thursday without Diamond because the team beat Syracuse at Syracuse without Diamond. Would love to see a Fair and Johnson match-up.

Six-feet senior Amber Brown leads Pitt in scoring with 9.6 ppg. Six-feet junior Liatu King is second with 9.4 ppg while five-seven senior Dayshanette Harris is third with 8.9 ppg. Liatu King leads Pitt in rebounding with 7.6 rpg. Pitt's volume arc shooters are six-feet sophomore Maliyah Johnson and five-ten freshman Avery Strickland with 108 and 105 attempts respectively. Johnson shoots 306 with regard to arc shooting while Strickland shoots 352. From the floor Amber Brown shoots 503. Pitt as a team shoots 392 from the floor; 321 from the arc. In Pitt's game against Syracuse nine players played 15 minutes or more while in the preceding game against Notre Dame seven players played 15 minutes or more.

From Warrennolan Pitt's overall record is 10-18; Pitt's conference record is 3-14; Pitt's live RPI is 151; Pitt's NET is 105; Pitt's ELO is 167 and Pitt's SOS is 30. Pitt's NET quad 1 record is 1-10. Pitt's best win was a home winner over NET 51 Virginia.

Warrennolan predicts State to win 76-54. HerHoopStats picks State to win in Raleigh 75.9 to 54.7 with a 95.5% win-probability. Of note is that State's Her Hoop Stats Rating is now 15/361 which is not half bad for a team with a conference record of 8-9. State's NET of 19 and RPI of 21 (from Warrennolan) are, again, really good for a team 8-9 in conference and with losses to teams in the bottom four of the conference. Wins out of conference at Iowa and in conference over Notre Dame, over UNC, over Miami, at Louisville and at Syracuse, all teams above State in the current conference standings, makes one feel that State should have a better conference record.

Again, State cannot afford to lose this one, or the next. Go Pack!