Pittsburgh Basketball Is Not Capable of Running the Table for Rest of 2015-16 Season

As sports fans, people love to talk about this team or that team running the table. It’s quickly becoming one of the most overused terms in any sport at any level. The more a team wins, everyone begins to talk about how that team will never lose during the course of the season. We’re numbers obsessed and enthralled with statistics; and the concept of going through an entire regular season undefeated is a very interesting conversation piece for people. Sometimes, it doesn’t even matter that you’re not playing anyone.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Pittsburgh Panthers are currently undefeated and have a chance at running the table. Well, they won’t exactly run the whole table. They just might run the table they’ll be sitting at until their conference schedule begins. Over the course of their first 11 games, the Panthers play a slew of teams with subpar talent and may not be tested until Dec. 30 when they meet the Syracuse Orange. Unless you eat and sleep college basketball, many of these teams they play in the early part of their schedule would be hard to identify without using Google.

Michael Young and Jamel Artis are both playing close to 25 minutes a game; and while both have been productive, they’re going to have to get some help from someone else wearing the same jersey if this team is serious at making a run to get into the tournament in March. Otherwise, you’ll just see two good players wear down as the year goes on. The rest of the ACC is just too good.

This team went 19-15 last year, finished 8-10 in the ACC and landed in a three-way tie for ninth place. During that stretch, they were annihilated by the N.C. State Wolfpack twice, who aren’t even close to being one of the superior teams in the conference, but they did beat Syracuse and the North Carolina Tar Heels. Things could actually be worse this year; but then again, if the ball bounces correctly here and there, who knows?

Jamie Dixon has a lot of work to do.

Don’t expect the fruits of that work to manifest into anything spectacular this year, but fans can at least get excited about the possibility of running the non-conference table (and maybe a bit further into the end of December).

Geoffrey Knox is a Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow on Twitter @gq_4_eva, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google+ and Linkedin.