GREENSBORO, N.C. -- One week after dropping out of the ACC Tournament quarterfinal round to eventual champion Duke inside Greensboro Coliseum, Pitt has a golden chance at being sized up for a glass slipper in the NCAA Tournament inside the same building.
The No. 11-seed Panthers endured an intense fight with Mississippi State and earned a 60-59 win in the NCAA Tournament First Four round Tuesday in Dayton, Ohio, setting up a clash in the Midwest Region with No. 6 Iowa State Friday at 3:10 p.m. in the "official" first round. The winner between the Panthers and Cyclones will oppose the winner of No. 3 Xavier and No. 14 Kennesaw State in the second round Sunday for a spot in the Sweet 16.
"We showed toughness, resiliency," Jeff Capel said after Tuesday's win. "We were who we've been all year, and it wasn't pretty, but it was beautiful. We just feel so grateful, so thankful, and so excited to be able to advance and get to Greensboro."
If Pitt (23-11, 14-6 ACC) wants to become the Cinderella story of the 2023 NCAA Tournament, it will have to go through a battle-tested Iowa State (19-13, 9-9 Big 12). The status of center Federiko Federiko is still in the air for Friday as he continues to nurse a knee injury, but Guillermo Diaz Graham stepped up to play a season-high 37 minutes and help quell the Bulldogs' top scoring threat Tolu Smith, leading to an adjusted, perimeter-based offense from Mississippi State which ultimately failed them in the long haul.
Regardless of Federiko's participation, the same formula might be applicable while game planning for the Cyclones.
Iowa State is nowhere near as dismal of a 3-point shooting team as Mississippi State is, though the Cyclones are not branded on shooting the lights out.
The Cyclones have made 33.9% of their 3-pointers this season (compared to Mississippi State's 29.5%). That figure ranked seventh among 10 Big 12 teams, while the 6.5 3-pointers made per game checked in at ninth in the conference.
All-Big 12 second-team guard Gabe Kalscheur attempts 2.3 3-pointers per game, but shoots it at just a 36.4% rate from deep this season. For context, Pitt has two players which have made 3s above that rate in Greg Elliott (41.8%) and Blake Hinson (38.8%).
While honorable mention All-Big 12 guard Jaren Holmes leads Iowa State in scoring at 13.4 points per game, his 34.5% rate of making 3-pointers is not nearly as much of a concern as Kalscheur.
Pitt held Mississippi State to an 18-for-40 clip (45%) from inside the 3-point arc, after the Bulldogs shot 51.9% from inside all season. Iowa State is a team which shoots just about the same rate from inside at 50.7%, led by honorable mention All-Big 12 center Osun Osunniyi, who shot 58.5% from the field in 32 games.
Mississippi State's Smith shoots it at a similar rate at 57.6% overall. Pitt held him to 13 points on 5 of 11 attempts to go along with five committed turnovers. Guillermo blocked his layup with 2.7 seconds remaining and then contested Smith's tip-in off a missed 3-pointer as time expired in regulation Tuesday.
"For Guillermo as a freshman to start in the NCAA Tournament and play 37 minutes against an all-conference player that's a graduate, that's a grown man, and to stand up to him and to fight throughout and then to make that block at the end. ... For our team to be able to defend this team and hold them under 40 percent shooting. I thought one of the main stats is that we defended really well without fouling. They only shot seven free throws."
That they did.
If Pitt wants to meet up with Xavier or Kennesaw State Sunday, the same applied model from Tuesday might be the key.
"I would just say it was scouting report," Burton said. "Coach did a great job putting us in positions knowing where they were going to be feeding the ball off of their plays and execution. And for us, we just wanted to be there for our brother (Guillermo). We understood the type of battle he was going to be in, all-conference type of guy, that he was going to be going against, so we just wanted to have his back out there."
Added Nelly Cummings: "And the attention to detail we had to have to maintain that throughout the game was something that we talked about as soon as we found out who we were playing. As soon as we seen the matchup, we knew we would have to be locked in defensively. Being that Federiko wasn't playing, we just understood the assignment and really just followed it."