Hello and welcome to beating-Pitt-for-some-reason week

If you’ve paid attention to the wider world of college athletics, then maybe you’ve noticed that NC State seems to beat Pittsburgh all the time. Not literally ALL the time, but really frequently, and regardless of which team is favored, no matter the sport. It’s weird.

Where did this begin? Some may argue that the roots are in football, that they date back to 2009. I’m not so sure. Pitt wasn’t in the ACC then, and when these schools did finally meet as conference opponents in a major sport, it was Pitt that prevailed, in men’s basketball, in early 2014.

In the rematch later that season, though, TJ Warren dropped 41 on the Panthers in a Wolfpack victory. Pitt has not won a game in this series since. That’s a 12-0 run on NC State’s part. Twelve straight wins spanning nearly a decade. Also in that span, another high-profile win in football, some big baseball wins, a complete turning upside down of the wrestling calculus.

Anyway, that stuff is what it is, but here is this particular Saturday’s Pittsburgh:

So what is there about this game that you would want to watch? Other than the compelling result of a winning streak spanning the better part of a decade? I don’t know, you sicko!

The one thing that’s interesting about this one is the only thing that’s interesting about it: can NC State, exceptionally bad at basketball this year, somehow continue its legacy of beating Pitt—also bad at basketball—as per common understanding? We don’t know. We won’t know until game time.

These two teams have worked hard to make this a mid-February mystery.