Pitt is sending six wrestlers to Tulsa, Okla. for the NCAA Championships from March 16-18, in hopes of a Nationwide Champion and a stable workforce end.

Pittsburgh Sports activities Now could be sending me, Dominic Campbell, out to Tulsa as nicely, to offer round the clock protection on the Panthers on the Championships for the following three days.

Pitt wrestling protection on Pittsburgh Sports activities Now could be sponsored by the Pittsburgh Wrestling Membership.

This system has not had a person Nationwide Champion since present head coach Keith Gavin did as a wrestler at Pitt in 2008 at 174 kilos.

Three wrestlers for the Panthers have an ideal likelihood to attain that feat, which might be the primary for Gavin in his six seasons as head coach.

The primary of those wrestlers is none apart from redshirt senior Nino Bonaccorsi. Bonaccorsi is a neighborhood product out of Bethel Park Excessive Faculty and is at present undefeated on the yr with a 19-0 file at 197 kilos, incomes him the No. 1 seed on the Championships.

Bonaccorsi has had success earlier than on the NCAA Championships, making it to the 197 kilos Last in 2021 because the No. 6 seed, earlier than dropping to No. 4 A.J. Ferrari of Oklahoma State. With this being his fifth consecutive time on the NCAA Championships, Bonaccorsi has an ideal likelihood to complete his profession because the nation’s finest in his weight class.

Redshirt senior Cole Matthews is one other Pitt wrestler that has an ideal alternative to win a Nationwide Title. Matthews had an ideal season as he accrued a file of 19-1 and earned the No. 3 seed on the Championships at 141 kilos.

Matthews completed in Fifth Place final yr and his capacity to catch opponents off guard and make takedowns is his finest power. He has some nice competitors that he’ll doubtless face within the later rounds, like No. 1 Iowa senior Actual Woods (16-0) and No. 2 Northern Colorado junior Andrew Alirez (23-0) who’re unbelievable wrestlers themselves.

Redshirt senior Micky Phillippi, like his finest buddy Bonaccorsi, has one final shot for a Nationwide Title. Phillippi had a 13-3 file this season  at 133 kilos and is a good defensive wrestler, as he makes it extraordinarily tough for his opponents to defeat him.

His one weak spot is that he doesn’t assault in addition to among the finest in his weight class. No. 5 NC State redshirt sophomore Kai Orine (15-5) defeated Phillippi twice, a 3-1 sudden victory for the ACC Title on March 5 and 2-1 on tiebreakers in a duel match on Feb. 10. Orine managed to make vital and decisive strikes on Phillippi late in shut matches that gave him the victory.

Phillippi’s defensive capacity provides him the prospect to defeat any opponent, however he’ll must make essential assaults to win a Nationwide Title on the No. 9 seed.

Gavin used the switch portal to nice success within the offseason and introduced brothers in No. 16 redshirt junior Reece Heller (18-8) at 184 kilos and No. 20 redshirt senior Holden Heller (14-6) at 165 kilos from Hofstra.

The brothers aren’t prone to win a Nationwide Title, however nonetheless have the chance to put excessive. They’re each sturdy in relation to scrambling, which permits them to get out of robust positions and prevents opponents from pinning them or scoring as many factors as they want.

No. 28 redshirt first-year Luca Augustine (15-9) is the bottom seed of any Pitt wrestler. Augustine is a robust wrestler at 174 kilos and is making his first look on the NCAA Championships. He did nice wrestling for the USA final summer season by turning into the U20 Freestyle Nationwide Champion and the U20 Pan-American Freestyle Champion.

Keep tuned for additional protection from me as I spend the following three days in Tulsa masking these proficient group of wrestlers. Right here is the schedule beneath, all in japanese normal time.

Pittsburgh Sports activities Now will likely be in Tulsa offering protection on the NCAA Wrestling Championships this week across the clock, so ensure that to get your Pitt wrestling protection right here. The schedule for NCAA Wrestling Championships seems like this. All instances are within the japanese normal time zone.

Thursday, March 16

Session 1 – 12:00 pm (Preliminaries & First Spherical)

Session 2 – 7:00 pm (Candy 16 & Consolations)

Friday, March 17

Session 3 – 12:00 pm (Quarterfinals & Consolations)

Session 4 – 8:00 pm (Championship Semifinals & Spherical of 12)

Saturday, March 18

Session 5 – 11:00 am (Putting Matches)

Session 6 – 7:00 pm (Championship Finals)

The Pitt Panther basketball staff little doubt celebrated Tuesday night time following this system’s first NCAA basketball event win in 9 seasons, however that’s now up to now.

Jeff Capel and employees probably spent the night and elements of this morning learning their subsequent opponent: the Iowa State Cyclones.

Head coach T.J. Otzelberger and the Cyclones completed the season with an total file of 19-13 and actually struggled down the stretch, dropping 9 of their final 13 video games.

Regardless of this late-season droop, Iowa State was given a No. 6 seed by the NCAA Event committee, largely due to the convention they reside in and their laptop metrics.

Iowa State completed the season No. 20 within the NET Rankings and No. 24 within the KenPom Scores.

Right here’s a take a look at their physique of labor for the 2022-23 season:

Non-conference schedule

Iowa State’s greatest wins got here in opposition to North Carolina, Villanova and St. John’s, none of whom made the NCAA Event. The 2 event groups that they did play had been UConn and Iowa, each losses.

Huge 12 schedule

Iowa State began out robust, successful 5 of its first six video games, together with wins over Baylor, TCU, Texas Tech and Texas. But it surely was short-lived because the Cyclones closed the season by dropping 10 of their remaining 15 video games. The losses got here in opposition to Oklahoma State (twice), Missouri, Texas Tech, West Virginia (twice), Kansas State, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. Seven of these 10 losses got here on the street.

Like Mississippi State, the power of Iowa State’s staff is its protection, which is ranked within the High 10 nationally.

Iowa State will little doubt have a deeper bench than Pitt as Otzelberger will use eight, perhaps 9 gamers. Iowa State averages 68.4 factors per recreation (ranked 267th within the nation) and has two gamers that averaged double-digit factors: guard Jaren Holmes (13.4 pts) and guard Gabe Kalscheur (12.9 pts).

Right here’s a comparability of those two groups when it comes to staff statistics.

The oddsmakers at the moment listing Iowa State as a four-point favourite. Iowa State and Pitt will tip off at 3:10 p.m. Friday in Greensboro, N.C., with a tv broadcast on TruTV.

Pitt made their return to the NCAA Males’s Basketball Event a memorable one and the sport positive didn’t lack for drama.

The 2 groups threw haymakers at one another all night lengthy however neither group was capable of get the knockout.

However ultimately, the Panthers gained the competition by choice due to a Jamarius Burton mid-range jumper with lower than 10 seconds left and two (very makeable) missed pictures by Mississippi State as time expired.

Mississippi State’s fashion of play coupled with the ridiculous variety of fouls known as by the referees on each groups didn’t make this enjoyable to look at at instances, however the backside line is that Pitt gained and have superior to play Iowa State on Friday.

This turns into Pitt’s first win within the NCAA match since 2013-14 and Jeff Capel’s first match win as a head coach since 2008-09 with Oklahoma.

The Panthers have been capable of overcome quite a lot of obstacles with a view to pull out the win. First off, they have been pressured to play with out their beginning middle, Federiko Federiko, which proved to be difficult due to the Bulldogs bodily frontcourt. Second, Jamarius Burton, their main scorer, logged solely 19 minutes of enjoying time due to foul hassle.

Lastly, the most important impediment for Pitt have been a slew of recreation statistics that weren’t trending of their favor–all of which indicated that Pitt wasn’t going to win.

How about this superb statistic courtesy of OptaStats, which confirmed what a tall job Pitt had in entrance of them.

Pitt is the one Division I group within the final 25 seasons to…

• Rating 60 or fewer factors.
• Shoot 35% or worse on 2-pointers.
• Shoot 60% or worse on free throws.
• Get outrebounded by 20 or extra.

AND STILL WIN THE GAME.

Previous to final evening, Div-I groups had been 0-348 over that span with these numbers.

Discuss beating the chances.