Where does Pitt fit into the madness?

The Panthers (22-4, 10-2 Big East) awkwardly tread… Where does Pitt fit into the madness?

The Panthers (22-4, 10-2 Big East) awkwardly tread in the eddy of the grey area. Can they be included in the upper echelon of college hoops, right with Florida, UCLA, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Ohio State, Texas A’M and Kansas?

As of right now, it’s hard to include Pitt in the top-flight group, but it’s hard to put them with Memphis, Washington State or Nevada on the next level. The Panthers are better than those teams, right?

Yet Pitt is 0-3 against ranked teams so far and was handled by Wisconsin, edged by Oklahoma State and beaten at home, Pitt’s so-called sanctuary, by a very streaky Marquette team.

Still, we’re to believe Pitt’s depth is unbeatable. As we’ve been told all season by head coach Jamie Dixon, Pitt plays “nine starters.” In other words, Ronald Ramon, Sam Young, Tyrell Biggs and Keith Benjamin are good enough to start for Dixon, but there are only five starting spots available, so the quartet contributes off the bench.

Bench depth is a quality needed to make a run in the NCAA tournament. Throw in Ramon and Benjamin with Levance Fields, Antonio Graves and Mike Cook, and Pitt possesses some great guard play, too.

Bench depth and guard play keep a trip home away.

At least, that’s the age-old recipe for success. But what if this year’s Pitt program is the exception to the rule? What if we are dreaming when the Associated Press and ESPN include the Panthers in the same conversation as Florida and the other “Big Seven” schools?

In the only chances to evaluate Pitt against quality programs, the Panthers have choked. Pitt is 0-3 against ranked teams. It was slower, sloppier and out-muscled in each of those losses.

Pitt’s best wins are against Georgetown, West Virginia and Florida State. But it also lost to a mediocre Louisville team and Marquette at home, where the Panthers should never lose. Good teams beat the lesser teams and split games with equals. The Panthers have only done the latter.

As I told you in a column earlier this season, the Big East is rated the worst “Major” among the ACC, Big East, Big 10, Big 12, SEC and Pac 10, ranking sixth in conference RPI.

The point is, the top four teams in the Big East are good in comparison to Cincinnati, South Florida and Seton Hall, but can they be great in comparison to the teams that matter?

Marquette lost to Wisconsin at home earlier this season. Georgetown hasn’t played any of the Big Seven. We know how Pitt did against Wisconsin, and Monday’s 66-53 loss to Louisville at the Petersen Events Center only showed, as my roommate says, “how terrible Pitt can be if it wants.”

Normally, Panther fans endure Levon Kendall’s inability to hit a jump shot – the 6-10 forward couldn’t make a jumper if the Pacific Ocean was the rim. Heck, they even sit through Aaron Gray’s enjoyable I’m-going-to-miss-eight-layups-before-making-the-last-one drills that he seemingly likes more and more with each passing day.

But Monday night was not OK. That was not worth the price of admission. And it was alarming enough to bring some fear back into my mind as Pitt’s remaining schedule rears its ugly head.

“If we perform like we did [Monday], then we’re going to lose every game,” Gray said after the Louisville loss. “The test is how we respond.”

Lurking in the shadows are road trips to Georgetown and Marquette which sandwich a home tangle with West Virginia and round out Pitt’s conference schedule.

The Selection Committee looks heavily at the last 10 games a team played before seeding a team in the NCAA tournament. That means the Panthers can’t afford to struggle like they did Monday. Hopefully, it’s out of their system. But what if it isn’t?

Pitt has to play its best basketball for four consecutive games if it wants a chance to play in Atlanta on Mar. 31. Frankly, its best basketball, which we haven’t seen yet this season, might not be good enough or simply might never show up.

Pitt is playing for a No. 2 seed, which isn’t bad. But the Panthers need to be playing for the No. 2 seed that, in the S-curve style of seeding, means they are the fifth-best team in the tournament, the last team left out of the No. 1 seeds and play the lowest-rated No. 1 seed.

Otherwise, they might be stuck with Florida or North Carolina. If Kendall can’t guard Louisville’s Juan Palacios and Derrick Caracter, then how on earth will he ever guard Florida’s Joakim Noah or North Carolina’s Brandan Wright?

Guard play and depth won’t matter at that point in the tournament – most of the contenders possess similar qualities with arguably more talented benches. The test will be, can Pitt play its best basketball and beat those teams?

Right now, I’d say the Panthers have a lot of work to do.