WSU VERSUS PITTSBURG PREDICTIONS AND PREGAME DISCUSSIONS

[Veritas]

Keys to the game:
40% and Steven Adams

Shox have only lost a few games when making more than 40% of their shots and are undefeated when holding their opponents to under 40%
Pittsburgh's frosh Steven Adams who is 7-feet seems to be athletic. Hall and Orukpe need to establish dominance and be bruising beasts.

Two similar playing styles.
Going with a tight game score:

WSU - 55
PITT - 54

Edit: Pitt did not play ANY OoC road games this year. They finished 6-3 road in conference and were 2-2 on neutral courts. This is a definite advantage to WSU. Additionally, I hope Pitt loses to further establish that the teams in the so-called major conferences need to schedule tougher OoC road games in order to better prepare their team for the NCAA tournament.

[The Mad Hatter]

I don't think that the committee uses the Massey which is a compilation of all the ratings, do they? I think that they use the RPI and maybe the BPI. They also get injury reports, and good wins, vs bad wins from the entire year, and probably some other things. But the Massey (the was I see it) is a compilation of different ratings groups that all have a different methodology of rating the teams.

Members of the selection committee can consult any of the statistical measurement systems that they want to. That doesn't mean that all of them do, and it doesn't say anything about how they weight those ranking systems. In any case, my point in bringing up Massey was to demonstrate that when you average out a number of different methodologies for evaluating teams, Pitt ranks out very highly and that using a wide number of evaluation tools (most of which are more accurate that pure RPI) is a better gauge of team strength than RPI. All that to say, Pitt is a good team and we could have gotten an easier draw. People on here seemed really happy with our draw and, while we are certainly able to beat Pitt, we probably got not only the best 8 seed, but a team that is better than most 6 and 7 seeds.

[Cdizzle]

Members of the selection committee can consult any of the statistical measurement systems that they want to. That doesn't mean that all of them do, and it doesn't say anything about how they weight those ranking systems. In any case, my point in bringing up Massey was to demonstrate that when you average out a number of different methodologies for evaluating teams, Pitt ranks out very highly and that using a wide number of evaluation tools (most of which are more accurate that pure RPI) is a better gauge of team strength than RPI. All that to say, Pitt is a good team and we could have gotten an easier draw. People on here seemed really happy with our draw and, while we are certainly able to beat Pitt, we probably got not only the best 8 seed, but a team that is better than most 6 and 7 seeds.

I think most people are happy about the draw because we didn't get matched up with the Butler's and VCU's of the world. Regardless of how difficult the match-up is, at least we're getting a shot at somebody that's looking down their nose at us. There are many posts on this board comparing the teams and finding them very, very similar. There are many posts on the opposition's board looking at the 4th round because Pitt is from the mighty Big East, while WSU and Gonzaga are from lowly conferences.

Don't get me wrong, I would have taken Minnesota's draw...

[another shocker]

pitt plays tough defense plus they are well coached. every time wichita state made a run at pitt in '09, dixon would push this button, pull that string, stomp that foot, and off they went again.

gimmicks or not, this game is every bit as tough as the vcu game from last ncaa. we must take care of the ball (like we did not do last time we played pitt).. shockers outrebounded them, i believe, but their guards toyed with wichita state. take care of the ball is priority #1 (heads up, smart passes, patience -d.will-, but be assertive when catching and shooting).

c'mon shocks! those big east guys wanna try and push little ol mvc team around. keep your heads, and push back!

[GOSHOX1]

Yeah we didn't have our starting point guard for that game either! Little different this time

[another shocker]

Yeah we didn't have our starting point guard for that game either! Little different this time

we shall see.

[CBB_Fan]

Here is what Grantland had to say about us:

Annoying Buzzkills

These middling teams deserve to be in the field, because of their records and their talent and etc., but at the same time, they are hopelessly inept in key ways, and it's going to kill them. Having them around is like inviting your boss to a party. I get why he has to be there, but really, it would be way better if he didn't come. These teams are one-and-done at best.

36. Wichita State (9) — Hey, look at all those great wins! Oh wait, it just beat Creighton once in three tries, barely, at home? That's it? I have no idea how this team got a 9-seed. It will score 37 points against Pittsburgh.

This is what he says about Pittsburgh:

The Grinders

These are the teams that aren't incredibly skilled, but have good coaches and slow, grinding styles that can wear teams down. Elite Eight runs are a real possibility.

22. Pittsburgh (8) — Will be a very sexy pick to take down Gonzaga in the Round of 32. And when you look at the metrics, and the fact that Pitt cut its teeth in the tough Big East … well, it makes a lot of sense.

Sounds like locker room material to me.

[newshock1234]

i guess winning at VCU doesn count. What a tool.

[Shockeriffic]

Grantland has some good writers but none of them write about college basketball. The funniest part of that is that he has us ranked 36th and wonders how we got a 9 seed. I guess he doesn't know how to do grade school math.

[CBB_Fan]

Grantland has some good writers but none of them write about college basketball. The funniest part of that is that he has us ranked 36th and wonders how we got a 9 seed. I guess he doesn't know how to do grade school math.

Yeah, it definitely couldn't have been that our RPI (37) and efficiency (33) are both right on the 9 seed, and that we won a large number of games despite having 4 starters injured at various times. But what I found funny is his definition of grinders. How is it that we don't fall under the category of a slow grinding team with a good coach?

[1979Shocker]

I don't remember if this was on the selection show or on ESPN later. What they showed on the screen was Pittsburgh with an actual seed of 4, but was given an 8 seed because of not putting teams from the same conference in the same regions. On that same screen, they had Wichita State with a 9 seed, but an actual seed of 6.

[rialaigh]

This is not my favorite matchup and frankly I don't think we matchup at well. We play much better in faster paced games, this game is going to be slow as hell and will allow us to foul them to no end. That and frankly Pitt is a damn good team.

They have 8 losses, 6 of them were to teams ranked at the time, one was to Marquette who is now in the tourny, and their only even semi bad loss was to Rutgers at an RPI of 110.

The average RPI of their opponents in losses other than Rutgers is 21. That is pretty hella strong, hell even with the 110 RPI loss to Rutgers the average is still better than 33.


I hope we win, I don't have as much hope as most of you. However I think if we lose it won't be by much, the game will be whoever gets to 60 first.

[Kung Wu]

This is not my favorite matchup and frankly I don't think we matchup at well. We play much better in faster paced games, this game is going to be slow as hell and will allow us to foul them to no end. That and frankly Pitt is a damn good team.

They have 8 losses, 6 of them were to teams ranked at the time, one was to Marquette who is now in the tourny, and their only even semi bad loss was to Rutgers at an RPI of 110.

The average RPI of their opponents in losses other than Rutgers is 21. That is pretty hella strong, hell even with the 110 RPI loss to Rutgers the average is still better than 33.


I hope we win, I don't have as much hope as most of you. However I think if we lose it won't be by much, the game will be whoever gets to 60 first.

At least we have had 18 games of practice against this style of basketball. Thanks Valley.

[CBB_Fan]

This is not my favorite matchup and frankly I don't think we matchup at well. We play much better in faster paced games, this game is going to be slow as hell and will allow us to foul them to no end. That and frankly Pitt is a damn good team.

They have 8 losses, 6 of them were to teams ranked at the time, one was to Marquette who is now in the tourny, and their only even semi bad loss was to Rutgers at an RPI of 110.

The average RPI of their opponents in losses other than Rutgers is 21. That is pretty hella strong, hell even with the 110 RPI loss to Rutgers the average is still better than 33.

I hope we win, I don't have as much hope as most of you. However I think if we lose it won't be by much, the game will be whoever gets to 60 first.

Don't get me wrong; Pittsburgh is the best 8 seed in the tournament, bar none. Ken Pomeroy gives them a 70%+ chance to beat us and the eighth highest chance to win the whole tournament (ahead of many 2, 3, and 4 seeds). They aren't a great team to face in the first round, and there are 5 and 6 seeds I'd rather go against.

However, it is downright disrespectful to say they are pretty much don't have to worry about us and will hold us to 37 points. Basically all of their positive characteristics (good coach, good defense, strong rebounding) are things we share with them. We have too many similarities with them to say that Gonzaga and Pitt is pretty much a guaranteed match-up.

[CBB_Fan]

Here is another quotation, this time positive.

Finding best NCAA title bets

Which teams offer the most value to win an NCAA title?

Long shot: Wichita State Shockers


If you're looking for a real long shot, Wichita State (300-1) stands out among the mid-majors. Again, in this price range I have no hesitation supporting a No. 8 or No. 9 seed that gets a chance to knock off the No. 1 seed on the opening weekend. The West is by far the weakest region out there, and I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest to see some higher-seed carnage in this region.
The Shockers are big, deep, defense-minded and athletic, and Missouri Valley Conference teams are battle tested away from home. I don't think Gregg Marshall's squad can win six games over the next three weekends, but at 300-1, opportunities to hedge and lock in a profit will be plentiful if they can get out of the opening weekend.