Pitt baseball left out of NCAA Tournament field
May 31—Mike Bell embraced his team's success this season, but he also wanted to address head-on its biggest disappointment.
"Collectively and quietly," he said Monday when Pitt's baseball team was not included in the NCAA Tournament's field of 64.
So, minutes before the selection show appeared on ESPN2, he met with his players and gave them the bad news. No need to sit around and stare at a TV screen for 30 minutes.
"It's something you want to cherish and you want to capture (if your team is selected)," Bell said in a video conference call with reporters. "But if you're not in, it's something that needs to be addressed collectively and quietly, and that's how we chose to do it."
Pitt was the second team left out — after Baylor was chosen as the first — and that will put the Panthers in line for a bid if two teams already selected are forced to withdraw.
"I know what it's like to experience that opportunity to go into next week," Bell said. "To come up that short probably makes it worse."
NCAA Selection Committee chairman John Altier said on ESPN2 that Pitt's late-season slump was the main reason it wasn't selected.
"Pitt was a very good team that struggled at the end of the year," he said. "That was something that was important for the committee to consider. We put in teams that are playing well."
Pitt's 3-2 loss to N.C. State in its second ACC Tournament game might have been the final blow.
"You never know when you put it in somebody else's hands," Bell said.
Pitt (23-20, 16-17 ACC) experienced a 2 1/2-week pause due to covid-19 complications in April and May and ended up losing 10 of its last 15 games, including four to N.C. State, which was selected, and three to Wake Forest, which was not.
"If you look at our body of work, that's the one thing you can hold against us. I choose to look at the things we are strong in, the reason why we should be in," he said.
Bell pointed to Pitt's 17 quality victories (against teams in the top 50 of the RPI), which was fourth in the country and led the ACC. Pitt (18-12 against teams in the NCAA field) is ranked No. 50 in the RPI and set a program record for ACC victories.
Bell mentioned that No. 51 UC Santa Barbara (39-18) and No. 88 Michigan (27-17) made the field. No. 47 North Carolina (27-25) also was chosen after losing three of four games to Pitt, including one in the ACC Tournament.
"Are we trying to put the best 64 teams in the field, or are we trying to reward someone because they had a good season?" Bell said.
"We didn't play as many games as some of the other teams around the country. We controlled what we can control and we did what we could do.
"I hurt for them. I feel for them. They've done everything we've asked them to do. Travel in two buses, covid this, covid that.
"More importantly, I want them to go back and look at the things they were able to accomplish this year. Those memories they can cherish.
"When things calm down, they'll have an opportunity to reflect and understand the special type of year they did have."
After losing to N.C. State last week, Bell said the team did take steps forward in his third season as Pitt's coach.
"We've got guys graduating. We've got guys with jobs waiting for them," he said of the mix of players on his roster. "We've got guys hoping to get an opportunity for pro ball. But they're a true team. They just do things the right way."
Jerry DiPaola is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Jerry by email at jdipaola@triblive.com or via Twitter .
