Pitt men’s basketball entered the ACC Tournament desperate to pull themselves out of a downward spiral that goes back months.  It began when the Panthers (10-12 overall, 6-10 ACC) dropped a one-point contest to Wake Forest on Jan. 23, snowballed into a streak during which they lost nine of 11, reached its climax when junior stars Xavier Johnson and Au’Diese Toney transferred and ends with a 79-73 loss to under-manned Miami (9-16 overall, 4-15 ACC) on the first day of the ACC Tournament in Greensboro, North Carolina. 

Pitt (9-10 overall, 5-9 ACC) has now lost eight of its last nine games after falling 62-65 at NC State (12-9 overall, 8-8 ACC) on Sunday afternoon. In the wake of two key personnel losses, head coach Jeff Capel insisted that he felt this loss could be better attributed to the eight-day layoff between games and not the recent roster attrition.