You could consider this Pitt team the Seinfeld Panthers.
Just like Jerry Seinfeld did, Pitt wants to keep their mindset even-steven.
"It never fails! I always even out!"
Just like Elaine Benes throwing Jerry's $20 bill out of the window (and, of course, his good friend George Costanza finding it, with Jerry later finding another $20 in his jacket pocket), Pitt had lost its $20 earlier in the season, but found it elsewhere down this stretch towards the season's midpoint.
Pitt had a rocky 1-3 start, but never lost its balance and maintained that a turnaround was possible. Then, they were able to steer back on course with wins at Northwestern and at NC State, which has helped carry the Panthers to a 11-4 overall record and a 4-0 mark in ACC play up to Saturday's 4 p.m. tip-off on Saturday with Clemson at the Petersen Events Center.
Pitt is taking that "even-steven" mindset into Saturday's clash, which as of Thursday evening will be for sole possession of first place in the early goings of the ACC.
Even through that still-perfect start to ACC play which has now included upsets over No. 25 North Carolina and No. 11 Virginia, the recent-most being a 68-65 win over the Cavaliers on Tuesday, the Panthers are not concerned with Bracketology or rankings or national talk.
They just want to play ball.
"Being in this position is great; I recognize that, but nothing's actually happened," Blake Hinson said on Thursday at the Petersen Events Center. "We won conference games and nothing's been completed, nothing's finished, so there's really nothing to be big-headed about."
What Hinson is speaking of is exactly the team's approach -- not just his -- and has been carried through the lows to the highs it has experienced throughout the season. It especially came into play over these last two games, in which the resilient Panthers had to fight from deficits in order to come out on top. On Tuesday, Virginia led by as many as 13 points in the first half and climbed to five separate leads of 12 points, but could not close out.
The reward for Pitt is a current perch atop the mountain that is the ACC, alongside Clemson (12-3, 4-0) as the only other unbeaten team left in the conference.
"I would say we have a resilient group," Jamarius Burton said. "We're staying even-keeled regardless if we're up or down, understanding that the game is not over and nobody remembers the score at halftime. That's what we tell ourselves at halftime is that we have another half to play our best basketball and continue to fight."
And that is a mantra which has developed since the late summer workouts. Pitt is, after all, a veteran group with many players having experience at other schools, and this team almost has a "Last Chance U" vibe to it in terms of the players which Jeff Capel have discovered one way or another.
That also goes as a testament to Capel's coaching. Not just in either of Tuesday or last Friday's games, but going back and throughout training camp with a team constructed of many new pieces.
"Our bond is unique, it's genuine," Burton said. "It started in the summer. All of us getting together, working out in our individual sessions and then getting together off the court just trying to build that bond and we started talking about how we could play off one another within the system and make each other better, and we've been able to do that.
"It's very simple. All of us, we understand that the biggest thing is winning, and winning cures all. We want everyone to get that piece of the pie, a slice of the pie, so for us it's just keeping the main thing the main thing, and that's winning."
Pitt's start within the ACC is the best in the Capel era and the best since the 4-0 start in the 2013-'14 season. In that season, the Panthers won 26 games and earned a win in the NCAA Tournament.
Picking up momentum early can serve as a tone setter for the rest of the season, especially once wins can sometimes come more difficult to fight for in February.
"Poise. Everybody's poised," Hinson said. "The coaching staff and the players are poised and just focused on winning, nothing else. ... No matter what happens we're going possession to possession."
Pitt's scoring margin against ACC opponents rests at plus-3.8 points per game, tied for third in the league. Clemson has feasted on some lowly fodder in their four games, beating Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, NC State, and Virginia Tech -- teams with a combined 0-for record against the rest of the ACC. Clemson has defeated those four teams by an average margin of 12.5 points, which is far ahead of second-place Miami's margin of 8.2 points in ACC games.
Hinson has been one of the best players in the ACC, checking into the matchup sixth in the conference in scoring (17.0 points per game) and 10th in rebounding (7.0). He is one of only two players in the ACC to rank inside the top 10 in both categories, along with preseason ACC player of the year Armando Bacot of North Carolina, who is first in each category (18.6 ppg, 11.1 rpg).
Clemson's leading man is Hunter Tyson, who checks into Saturday's game 12th in the ACC in scoring at 15.9 points. Teammate Chase Hunter is right behind him at 14.6.
MORE FROM OAKLAND
• The world received positive news regarding former Pitt football safety Damar Hamlin, who doctors revealed is responsive, is awakening, and is making "substantial improvement" after being intubated and in critical condition since going under cardiac arrest after making a tackle on Monday night in Cincinnati.
Check this perspective out from Burton in the video below. Though what happened was an injury on a football field, there is still much to take away about cherishing each moment in life:
