CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- The ACC had a perceived "down" season last year.
Somehow.
And, yet, when Selection Sunday rolls around March 12, the conference will in all likelihood have 8-10 teams slotted in the NCAA Tournament.
Two ACC teams made the Final Four and three were in the Sweet 16 and subsequent Elite Eight last year, with North Carolina advancing to the National Championship before Kansas dispatched of them with an epic second-half comeback.
Even when the ACC is down, it is still trending up.
Which is why this current Pitt run feels all the more special.
"I've said it over and over, I think our league is really good; I think it has been really good," Jeff Capel said Monday. "I think there are really good players, good coaches, really great pride and tradition in every program. And, it makes for great competition night in and night out. There are no 'gimme' games, here are no easy games. It's just a very, very good, competitive league from top-to-bottom."
Entering Tuesday, nine teams have a record of .500 or better within the league, with 10 teams boasting above-.500 overall records. Four ACC teams make up the NCAA NET Rankings' top 40, and seven crack the top 60.
Pitt, meanwhile, rests at 62 within these rankings. Pitt is 4-2 against the seven ACC teams ranked ahead of them in the NET, with losses to Duke and Clemson and a game still to be played at Virginia Tech Feb. 18. Pitt is 4-1 against ACC teams ranked in the NET top 50.
Just like in the NET, four ACC teams are inside KenPom's top 40, and seven crack the top 60. Pitt is 67 -- a low mark for certain -- via KenPom.
The Panthers, though, are still on the correct side of the NCAA Tournament bubble, and especially following their wins over Wake Forest and No. 20 Miami this previous week. A win in Wednesday's 7 p.m. matchup at North Carolina can place Pitt in a prime spot heading into the rest of February, as a second win over the Tar Heels (NET 33) would move the Panthers to 4-2 in Quadrant 1 games.
Pitt is one of two ACC teams to have a winning record in Quad 1 games, entering Wednesday. The other is Clemson, also at 3-2. North Carolina is 1-6 in Quad 1.
"I think the league has been great. Not good, been great every year," North Carolina coach Hubert Davis said. "For whatever reason last year there was a narrative that the league was down. It's just not possible in the ACC for this conference to ever be down with the level of coaches and players that come out of this conference. Every year the competitiveness, the fights to me is just unmatched. This year's is no different than any other year. Everybody's good. Anybody can beat anybody at any given night, and you have to show up and play your best every night in order to have a chance to win. It's such a privilege and honor to be a part of this conference as a player, as an assistant coach, and now as a head coach."
Here is the real kicker, though. ESPN's Joe Lunardi currently has seven ACC teams in the field in his latest Bracketology. CBS Sports' Jerry Palm has eight, with the differentiation coming from the addition of Virginia Tech (NET 52).
Of Pitt's remaining nine games, three are against projected NCAA Tournament teams: at North Carolina, at Virginia Tech, and at Miami to close the season on March 4. All three of those games are Quad 1 games, and Pitt already has wins over UNC and Miami.
"It talks heavily about our league," Pitt's Jamarius Burton said. "It's a great league, a very competitive league, and each and every night there's a team that's standing across from you that has the ability to win, and we've seen that top to bottom. Just a tremendous league to be a part of."
MORE FROM CHAPEL HILL
• "Glue guy" is a typical term in hockey in basketball. In basketball, it's the guy who makes everything work and hods it together on the floor.
(I highly recommend longtime NBA veteran Shane Battier's read from the Players Tribune about this role.)
In our final briefing before the trip to Chapel Hill, Capel was asked who Pitt's "glue guy" was:
"I don't know. That's a good question," Capel said. "'Glue guy' is a compliment. Some people may not take it that way, but it is. It probably is (Burton). He can just do a lot of different things, fill a lot of different roles for you, for us. He does them all at a pretty high level."
At first, I would have made the case for Nelly Cummings as Pitt's "glue guy." But, Burton fits the mold, as well.
• Capel's group of veterans keeps telling its story of how its success was born as we traverse through the season. In the latest chapter of learning more about the Panthers and their inner-sanctum, Capel used one of his own interests to make an analogy to the build-up of his program over the last few years.
"When I got here the culture that Ben (Howland) and Jamie (Dixon) had created, which was one of the best cultures in the country, was gone," Capel said. "It didn't exist here anymore. One of the hardest things to do is build that, and it takes time. Sometimes you make some mistakes and things like that.
"A wise woman told me this, and I said this at the end of the year last year, it's like a vineyard, when you take over a vineyard or you go and -- I love wine, so this is why maybe this stuck with me when she told me this -- when you take over a vineyard, if you're there and no one's taken care of it for a long time and everything is grown and it's nasty and whatever, the very first thing you have to do is clean everything up. You have to come in and clean all that stuff up. Then you can start planting some seeds, right? And then it may take some while for it to grow. It's a lot of things. The weather's got to be right. I mean, all those things.
"And, then, it starts to grow. You're probably not producing great wine yet because the grapes aren't great, but at least you're producing wine. Eventually if you keep tending to it and taking care of it and things like that, then you can start to produce some really good wine. Basically, it takes time, and you've got to get the right pieces. Everything has to be connected. So far this year we've done a pretty good job of that, even in adversity and different things that we've been through, we've been able to stay pretty connected. These guys care about each other, they've fought for each other.
"One of the things we talked about today is that now we're basically into February. This is the grind, and, so, we've got to maintain that. We have to protect that at all costs and keep playing for each other."
(As for me, I'm more of a Cabernet Sauvignon guy. But this was genuinely cool stuff from Capel.)
• The Associated Press rankings do not matter to Capel.
Pitt is just outside of this week's Top 25 after receiving nine points in the updated weekly poll. That is good for a tie for 39th in the country.
"It doesn't irritate me," Capel said. "It doesn't. I have no idea who the voters are. It doesn't bother me, man. If we take care of what we're trying to take care of -- I'd love it for our guys, don't get me wrong. Are we deserving? I think we are -- but, sometimes as a coach you've got to play the game with those people, some of these voters. I'm not playing the game. I'm not kissing their butt. I'm not calling or returning every text or anything like that. I understand it. I'm older now. This is not the 27-year-old that was at VCU or the 30-, 31-year-old that was at Oklahoma at the beginning. I understand how some of this stuff works. I'm very comfortable just being in my lane with my guys, and we'll hopefully let our work take care of any of that stuff."
