Pittsburgh's Omari Witherspoon drives on Stanford's Ebuka Okorie during Tuesday's ACC men's basketball tournament first-round game. Stanford lost 64-63 on a last-second basket. (Andrew Hancock / ACC)
Pittsburgh’s Omari Witherspoon drives on Stanford’s Ebuka Okorie during Tuesday’s ACC men’s basketball tournament first-round game. Stanford lost 64-63 on a last-second basket. (Andrew Hancock / ACC)
Stanford’s hopes of bolstering its NCAA Tournament credentials were thwarted by a tip-in with 0.7 seconds remaining in the first round of the ACC Tournament on Tuesday in Charlotte, North Carolina, but Cardinal head coach Kyle Smith says his team had already made its case to be part of the Big Dance.
“Our league is good, and I’d be shocked if we’re not in it,” Smith said following 10th-seeded Stanford’s 64-63 loss to 15th-seeded Pittsburgh.
The Cardinal (20-12) finished ninth in the ACC regular-season standings and headed into the conference riding a four-game winning streak, moving Stanford into the middle of the NCAA Tournament bubble discussion. Stanford took the court on Tuesday ranked No. 59 in the NCAA’s NET Ratings, but ESPN had Stanford listed among its First Four Out teams that would miss the 68-team NCAA Tournament cut.
Pittsburgh guard Damarco Minor is congratulated by guard Barry Dunning Jr. after scoring what turned out to be the game-winning basket with less than a second left in an ACC Tournament first-round game against Stanford on Tuesday. (Courtesy/Allie Lawhon/ACC)
Pittsburgh guard Damarco Minor is congratulated by guard Barry Dunning Jr. after scoring what turned out to be the game-winning basket with less than a second left in an ACC Tournament first-round game against Stanford on Tuesday. (Courtesy/Allie Lawhon/ACC)
The field will be announced on Sunday, leaving plenty of time for fans and broadcast pundits to debate Stanford’s fate.
The Cardinal’s path to its first NCAA appearance since the 2013-14 season certainly would have been made clearer with a victory or two at the ACC Tournament.
Tuesday, there were 11 lead changes and four ties. Stanford rallied to take a lead five times in the second half. But Pitt prevailed largely on the strength of a 20-7 advantage on the offensive boards, outscoring Stanford 25-7 in second-chance points and by 12 in the paint.
Ebuka Okorie appeared to have Stanford headed into the second round when his three-point play gave the Cardinal a 63-62 lead with 26.2 seconds remaining, Pitt’s Damarco Minor missed a 3-pointer, but the Panthers came up with the ball after a scramble. Minor missed a short jumper in the paint but put in the game-winner with less than a second left, sending the Panthers (13-19) into the second round against seventh-seeded NC State on Wednesday.
“That was a classic postseason grind,” Smith said. “Hats off, Pittsburgh just competed really hard, especially on the glass.”
Stanford trailed by eight points at halftime and was down seven with 6:55 remaining in the game. But Stanford responded with a 10-2 run to lead by one with 1:40 to play. Following a Panthers 3-pointer, Okorie responded with a driving layup and made free throw, setting up the wild finishing sequence at the other end of the court.
Smith said Stanford, “took a big punch. We came back. Really proud of Ebuka. (I) challenged him to play the right way, did as a point guard, really got us back in there, made a big shot, made his free throw. We needed one stop and we just couldn’t come up with it.”
Okorie, coming in as the nation’s second-leading freshman scorer at 23.1 points per game, led the Cardinal with 14 points, finishing 5-for-10 from the floor. He moved past Chasson Randle (2013-14) and Reid Travis (2017-18) for sixth on Stanford’s single-season scoring list. Benny Gealer scored 11 points and AJ Rohosy had 10 points and a team-leading seven rebounds.
Now the Cardinal must wait and see what the NCAA Tournament committee thinks of their entire body of work.
“We have one of the best players in the country, and we’ve got a lot of Quad 1 wins in a really competitive conference,” Smith said. “It would be a shame if, like Oklahoma gets to go last year being 6-12 in the SEC, and the ACC doesn’t get rewarded the right way.
“I think our league is awesome. Any other bullet points you have for me, I’ll put this on Twitter.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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