Panthers are running out of time

There were multiple reasons for Panthers fans to be positive leading up to Pitt men’s basketball’s Saturday afternoon game against No. 9 Virginia.

The Panthers boast a 14-3 record at the Petersen Events Center against Top 10 teams. They were coming off an impressive, bounce-back blowout of Virginia Tech. They had six days off. Virginia had lost to three teams that Pitt had beat. The Oakland Zoo was decked in jet black, riled up for the second annual Pitt Blackout.

Yet none of that ended up curbing the Cavaliers, who dominated in the second half to pull out a 64-50 win over the Panthers, leaving Jamie Dixon and the Panthers at the crossroad. The team’s attitude after the loss, while defeated, maintained an air of optimism.

“We’re a good team, we’re fine,” junior forward Jamel Artis said. “We’ve just gotta learn how to control when we’re down.”

Despite remaining confident, Pitt is running out of chances to prove that it is anything more than a vanilla, middle-of-the-road ACC team — and Artis knows it.

“It definitely needs to be proven on the court,” Artis said. “We can say we’re a great team, but like I said, we need to do it on the court on a daily basis.”

The Panthers are 0-3 on the season against ranked opponents, with their best win coming on the road in South Bend, Indiana, against a frisky Notre Dame team — a game where the Panthers almost squandered an 18-point lead.

Pitt’s schedule is still ripe with opportunities to pick up a statement victory. The team travels to Miami for a matchup with the No. 14 Hurricanes Tuesday, then treks to Chapel Hill to take on the imposing No. 2 North Carolina Tar Heels.

The Panthers’ remaining schedule also features winnable home contests against Duke and Louisville, but if the Panthers expects the selection committee to even consider them a viable NCAA Tournament team, their defense, which ranks 148th in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency rating, has to improve — and fast.

“…I was concerned [about the defense] in November and October and September,” head coach Jamie Dixon said. “It’s no secret to me. It comes out in losses but it’s evident in wins as well, we’ve got to get better [on defense] to be at the top of the league.”

It’s been a surprising struggle for a program that has built itself up on a reputation of hard-nosed defensive play under Dixon. But there’s plenty of room for a late season run if the Panthers can toughen up defensively.

Dixon looks no further than the team that bested the Panthers Saturday for a model turnaround. The Cavaliers lost their second game of the season at George Washington, and suffered conference losses away from home at Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech and Florida State.

“[Virginia] had some losses on the road, and they didn’t feel good about themselves I’m sure,” Dixon said. “And now they’re playing really well.”

But that flipping of the switch will have to come soon. Dixon said Tuesday’s matchup with Miami will be a strong indicator of where this team is headed.

“Who we are is what we do tomorrow and what we do Tuesday,” Dixon said.

The contest on Tuesday against the Hurricanes will tip off at 7 p.m. ESPNU will air the game.