Tim Benz: Selection Sunday results are an ultimate contrast for Duquesne and Pitt
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Duquesne freshman Jakub Necas slipped behind his school’s Atlantic 10 championship backdrop away from the rest of his celebrating team and sat down in a bed of confetti on the Barclays Center floor.
The 20-year-old hung up the FaceTime call with his parents back home in the Czech Republic, bowed his head and wiped away the tears before rejoining the jubilation on the other side of the podium.
For Necas, the tears were partially out of joy from being part of Duquesne’s efforts to secure the program’s first NCAA tournament berth since 1977. But they were also falling down his cheeks because his parents couldn’t be there to celebrate with him.
“I so love my family. They are the reason I am doing well, especially my dad. My mom is my biggest friend. It’s a little bit sad to celebrate this without them,” Necas said as his voice began to break up. “Because I owe them my success. Back home they are celebrating with me. This is the first time I am not able to celebrate with them.”
That emotional duality existed on a broader scale up and down Fifth and Forbes as well. On Duquesne’s campus, there was mass celebration after Duquesne secured its first NCAA Tournament berth in 47 years.
“That’s crazy. I wasn’t even alive 47 years ago,” guard Jimmy Clark said.
Jimmy, I was barely alive 47 years ago. You weren’t even alive 27 years ago. So, yes, it is pretty crazy. Crazy that it took so long. Crazy that this run came seemingly out of nowhere to end it.
Meanwhile, 2 miles away on Pitt’s campus, there was disappointment and anger over the Panthers being left out of the bracket.
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Apparent bitterness, too, as Pitt declined a bid to the NIT.
That’s petty. But I get it. Pitt is good enough to be in the NCAA Tournament. And what motivation do they have to play a made-for-TV consolation tournament when so many on TV had been leaving them out of contention to play in the Big Dance?
It’s hard to watch the Panthers and think that they aren’t one of the 68 best teams in the country, regardless of what the strength-of-schedule metrics say.
The narrative for the Panthers’ fan base certainly shifted as conference championship week went along. The preemptive complaint from Pitt fans heading into last week’s play was that the ACC was undervalued and the conference was going to get shortchanged on teams granted entry into next week’s national tournament.
Instead, though, the focus of the anger became which ACC teams got in instead of Pitt.
For instance, Clemson (21-11/11-9) made it but finished two spots behind the fourth-place Panthers (22-11/12-8) in the ACC standings and got knocked out a round earlier than Pitt in the ACC Tournament.
Granted, Pitt lost to Clemson. But if head-to-head results matter, why did Virginia (23-10/13-7) get a 12-seed and a “First Four” game in Dayton against Colorado State? The Panthers beat the Cavaliers in Charlottesville, 74-63. Not to mention that Pitt had a better NET, KenPom, BPI and Quad 1 record than Virginia. They also had nearly the same overall strength of schedule as Pitt, who ended up 71st and UVA was 70th.
So how did Pitt get squeezed out finishing between those two?
No doubt Duquesne fans took a little extra joy in their big day occurring as the Panthers were snubbed, especially because Pitt’s Kenpom.com nonconference strength of schedule ranked No. 340 in the nation. Had Pitt been willing to renew the City Game against the Dukes (Net 80) on a neutral court instead of hosting, say, N.C. AT&T (Net 343), that would have helped Pitt’s cause.
Also, Duquesne stole one of the bubble slots by gaining automatic entry to the tournament, thus leaving conference favorite Dayton to scoop up one of the valuable at-large spots.
Honestly, though, given an absence from the Big Dance of almost 50 years, Pitt could’ve gone unbeaten in the regular season and been named the No. 1 overall seed, and Sunday still would’ve belonged to Duquesne.
The @DuqMBB team celebrates their name popping up on selection Sunday pic.twitter.com/OuPY57pcg4
— Tim Benz (@TimBenzPGH) March 17, 2024
“That’s why I came here. To at least give it my very best effort to get Duquesne into the NCAA Tournament,” coach Keith Dambrot said.
Now that effort has resulted in ending a drought that goes back almost half a century.
Listen: Tim Benz and Duquense coach Keith Dambrot discuss the Dukes winning the Atlantic-10 and making the NCAA tournament.