You could look at it like Pitt qualified for the NCAA tournament with that pulsating 60-59 win over Mississippi State on Tuesday night, or that it actually won a tourney game — which is how the NCAA views it (even though my bracket clearly labels the next group of games as the "first round").
Either way, Pitt's on the big bracket.
Either way, this is beautiful.
We're a better sports town when Pitt basketball is relevant, and it'll be mighty relevant Friday afternoon when it takes on Iowa State in the familiar setting of Greensboro, N.C.
Jeff Capel has resurrected the dead, unless there's a word for more than dead, because that's where this program was as recently as four months ago. Do you remember Pitt losing by a million points to Michigan and West Virginia, then trailing Alabama State (currently 355th out of 363 Division I teams in Jeff Sagarin's rankings) at the half, at home, seemingly on its way to yet another disastrous season?
This is one of the best coaching jobs in our town's recent history, and that would be true even if Pitt had lost on that last-second shot. I happen to agree with in-studio analyst Seth Davis, who put it this way after the game: "You just cannot say enough about the job Jeff Capel has done. It's been a rough couple of years. Jeff Capel was at the top of all the hot-seat lists coming into the season. It's been bad. He lost some guys this season ... "
Ex-Villanova coach Jay Wright jumped in and said, "Three (lost) potential starters (this season). I talked with (Capel) about this yesterday. His big man, [Fede] Federiko, who didn't play, was supposed to be a backup."
Even when it had its main big man, John Hugley IV — who earlier in the day announced his plans to transfer — Pitt was picked 14th in the ACC this season.
All of which had me asking around Wednesday morning, wondering how friends long familiar with the program would answer the following question: That was Pitt's most significant win since (fill in blank)?
I think one of them hit on it: It was the biggest win since March 5, 2011, when the Panthers beat Wright's visiting Villanova team, 60-50, to clinch what would be their final Big East regular season championship.
Think about that. Babies born that day are nearing high school. There have been two NCAA tournament wins since then, but Pitt was heavily favored in both (UNC-Asheville in 2011, Colorado in 2014) and would quickly be dispatched. There have been a few nice wins over Duke, a victory over North Carolina in the ACC tournament one year and some other good wins since that Villanova game, including the Virginia game this season.
But none of those compare to what we witnessed Tuesday night. We'll remember this game. It wasn't pretty, but even at its best, when has Pitt basketball ever been pretty? This was a short-handed team, a 2 1/2-point underdog, delivering a graphic display of mental and physical toughness. Especially after the way it was destroyed by Duke in its previous game.
Pitt was missing its only real inside presence in Federiko and was badly out-rebounded, yet came down with several key defensive rebounds late in the game and battled like mad on every possession.
Yes, it got lucky, too, as Capel mentioned afterward, in that Mississippi State missed a wide-open corner shot and a tip-in attempt just before the buzzer. But every team that advances this time of year gets lucky at some point, and goodness knows Pitt has suffered its share of bad luck in NCAA tournament settings over the years.
The basketball gods owed them one.
How cool was it to follow a meaningful March basketball game again — every pass, every shot, every call, every possession right to the last millisecond? How cool was it when Blake Hinson sank that "what the hell" 3-pointer (Capel's description), and when Jamarius Burton drilled the eventual game-winner, and when 7-foot freshman Guillermo Diaz Graham — who could hide his whole body behind a kite string — blocked the shot of man five times his width in the final seconds?
How cool was it when the bench erupted in celebration, like winning benches do this time of year, and when Capel delivered an emotional half-court interview afterward?
Man, it's been too long.
You could look at it like Pitt qualified for the Big Dance or like the half-court interviewer put it to Capel: "Pitt is advancing in the NCAA tournament."
Capel smiled and said, "Sounds good, right?"
No, actually.
It sounds great.
