On Tuesday night, Pitt men’s basketball got its wheels blown off by SMU in an 83-63 loss that might as well have punched the Panther’s ticket out of the big dance.

If you thought Pitt still had tournament chances before Tuesday night, you were generous. As part of the “Next Four Out,” prior to their dreadful loss to SMU, it seems like there is only one last saving grace for the Panthers — the ACC Tournament. 

Currently 10th place in conference standings, Pitt needs to either snag the automatic qualifying bid with a tournament win or make a deep run and prove to the committee that it is deserving of one of the coveted 68 spots that compete in March Madness. 

To put it flatly — the game against the Mustangs was an extremely hard watch, and in tandem with the fact that the game tipped off at 9 p.m., I had to hold my eyes open by the start of the second half. From mid-way through the first half until the final buzzer, the JV-looking Pitt squad was overall outmatched in every facet by SMU.

Early foul trouble  

Pitt got into foul trouble quickly, allowing SMU to get easy points from the stripe starting as early as 6:34 left in the first half. This came at a point when the Panthers were already down 32-16 and certainly didn’t help their chances of coming back. 

Feeling like a broken record

With the same usual nagging pains plaguing Pitt in this loss, it’s hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel for this season. Three-point defense, turnovers and rebounding made all the difference — and in the unfortunate case for the Panthers — not a difference to their benefit.

There’s no dancing around the fact that Pitt just cannot seem to figure out how to defend around the three. All season long, the Panthers have fallen at the hands of the long-range barrage. Tuesday night was no different. 

SMU shot an astounding 50% from three — a wild increase from their usual 39.3% split. 

The Panthers have one Quad-One chance left on the schedule in a rematch at Louisville and will have to seriously crack down and effectively implement a change in their defense around the arc to spark any form of hope into the postseason. In their last game against the Cardinals, a lack of defense on three-point shots held Pitt back. At the time, this loss was the second of the rut that has now built to dropping eight out of their last 10 games.

Turnovers continued to hurt Pitt in this game. The team gave up 12, and SMU took advantage of each one. SMU scored 18 points off of Pitt TOs on Tuesday night, and in a game where the Panthers lost by 20, these points in hindsight seem like they could have turned the game around.

Again, rebounds — or lack thereof — held Pitt back. SMU outrebounded Pitt 29-18 on the defensive glass, leading to more opportunities for SMU, and in turn, more points, which allowed them to run up the score just as teams have done all year long. 

Again, Pitt let the Mustangs get out to an early lead and never recovered. It seems like every game, the Panthers play from behind. And every time, it doesn’t work out for them. I feel like I blinked and Pitt was already down 10, never able to really bring it back to a one or two-possession game after that.

These things all need to get cleaned up, and it’s almost too late as Pitt has pretty much kissed its bid to the dance goodbye. With the ACC tournament still in sight, there is still a chance to right the script that has doomed their season thus far.

Catch Pitt back in action this Saturday at noon when it hosts Miami or watch the game on ESPN.