It seems that every season, there are teams that unjustly get left out of the field of 68 in the NCAA’s annual men’s basketball tournament that determines its national champion.

The 2023/2024 Pitt Panthers will go down as one of those teams this year. After starting 10-7–including 1-5 in conference play–Pitt won 12 of its final 15 regular-season games to finish 21-10 and 12-8 in the ACC. The 12-8 mark was good enough to finish in fourth place and earn a double-bye into the third round of the ACC Tournament.

After defeating Wake Forest, 81-69, on Thursday afternoon, the Panthers lost a tough game to North Carolina on Friday night by a score of 72-65. Pitt led by as many as nine points in the first half and had knotted the score at 62 late in the game before the Tar Heels, who finished first in the conference during the regular season and would go on to earn a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, pulled away at the end.

Would a 22-11 overall record be enough for the Panthers to punch their ticket to the field of 68? Many experts and bracketologists didn’t think so. Potentially damaging to Pitt’s chances was a non-conference schedule that ranked in the 300s. An early-season loss to a bad Missouri team loomed large, as well.

But Pitt did have impressive ACC road wins over both Duke and Virginia; speaking of the latter, the Cavaliers had won 23 straight home games and were ranked 21st in the country when Pitt entered Paul Jones Arena on February 13 and exited with a dominant 74-61 victory.

But despite both programs going in different directions down the stretch, Virginia either remained safely in the field or on the bubble. At the same time, the best the Panthers could hope for from the bracketologists was occasionally being projected as one of the Last Four In.

Unfortunately, Pitt didn’t make it in when the 68-team field was announced on Sunday evening, while the Cavaliers did. In addition to North Carolina and Virginia, Duke, Clemson and NC State also earned bids. Speaking of the Wolfpack, who entered the ACC Tournament as a 10th seed with no shot at an at-large bid, they got in by winning five games in five nights–including upsets of Duke in the quarterfinals and North Carolina in the finals. Was the committee going to take five teams all along, and would Pitt, who swept the Wolfpack during the regular season, have gotten an at-large bid if things had gone more predictably?

Who’s to say? But regardless of the Wolfpack’s impact, it’s hard to see the committee’s logic for selecting Virginia over the Panthers. It’s easy to understand with Clemson. Sure, the Tigers finished one game back of Pitt in the final ACC standings, but they won both matchups between the two programs during the regular season and finished 35th in the Net Rankings and Quad Wins category.  Not only did the Cavaliers get blown out by Pitt during the regular season, but they had a worse Quad 1 record (2-7 vs. 4-6) and finished 54th in the Net Rankings, compared to 40th for the Panthers.

The Panthers, who were projected to earn a top seed and at least one home game at Petersen Events Center, turned down an invitation to the NIT.

But it wasn’t all bad news for Pittsburgh’s men’s college basketball teams. The Duquesne Dukes are going dancing for the first time since 1977. The Dukes earned an automatic bid by virtue of a 57-51 win over VCU in the Atlantic 10 Tournament final at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, on Sunday afternoon.

The Dukes entered the 2023/2024 campaign expecting big things but started 0-5 in conference play. Duquesne closed out the season by winning 10 of its final 13 games and began the Atlantic 10 Tournament as the sixth seed. The Dukes won four-straight games–including an upset over top-seeded Dayton–and will be going dancing for the first time since Elvis Presley was still alive.

The Dukes received an 11th seed and will take on sixth-seeded BYU this Thursday afternoon in Omaha, Nebraska.