Pittsburgh doesn’t have the lengthiest history of association with the NCAA Tournament, but plenty of memorable individual and team performances can be found spread across the six prior times the Big Dance featured first-weekend matchups in the city.
The NCAA Tournament first came to Pittsburgh in 1997 and again in 2002, when the Civic (later Mellon) Arena served as host venue.
CONSOL Energy Center did the same in 2012 and 2015, with games coming to PPG Paints Arena in 2018, 2022 and now again in 2024.
In each year of Pittsburgh’s role as a host city for the NCAA Tournament, Duquesne has served as the host institution.
For the Dukes’ staff, that responsibility translates into a hectic existence, not only during the days in which games are being played but for months leading up to Selection Sunday, when the field of teams coming to town is finally revealed.
As longtime Duquesne sports information director Dave Saba, who retired last summer, put it in 2022, “In a way, it’s like hosting a wedding with 500 people, not knowing who the guests are going to be.”
The NCAA Tournament’s history in Pittsburgh over the years has featured a mix of triumphant victories, crushing defeats, shocking upsets and all-around unforgettable moments. Here are some highlights:
2018: Villanova’s title run
Pittsburgh and PPG Paints Arena served as the launching pad for Villanova’s road to the national championship in 2018.
The Wildcats earned the No. 1 seed in the East Region and played their first two games of the tournament in Pittsburgh, dispatching 16th-seeded Radford in the opening round before beating No. 9 Alabama comfortably in the Round of 32.
From there, Sweet 16 and Elite 8 victories over West Virginia and Texas Tech followed at TD Garden in Boston.
Villanova took down No. 4 Kansas in the Final Four at the Alamodome in San Antonio and then beat No. 8 Michigan, 79-62, in the championship.
They remain the only national champion whose journey began in Pittsburgh.
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1997: An upset to remember
The most shocking upset in Pittsburgh’s NCAA Tournament history came in 1997, when No. 15 Coppin State took down No. 2 South Carolina in the Round of 64.
The Gamecocks had won the SEC regular-season title but lost in the conference tournament semifinals to Georgia.
Coppin State, of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, won its league regular-season championship as well as the conference tournament to secure an automatic bid.
On March 14, 1997, the Eagles and Gamecocks met at Civic Arena.
The Associated Press’ Alan Robinson summarized the stunning upset later in the day:
No tradition, no chance. Coppin State never had won a game in the NCAA Tournament, and, with a first-round pairing against mighty South Carolina, it didn’t look like that was about to change.
Do you believe in miracles?
“We believed. We always believed,” said Danny Singletary after leading the Eagles, 30-point underdogs, to a 78-65 East Regional upset of the Gamecocks Friday.
Singletary dropped 22 points for the Eagles, who became just the third 15-seed to knock off a No. 2 seed in tournament history.
Unfortunately for Coppin State, the magic did not carry over into the Round of 32, as the Eagles lost a heartbreaker to No. 10 Texas, 82-81, two days later.
Of the eight teams to begin their NCAA Tournament journey in Pittsburgh that year, No. 6 Louisville advanced the furthest, reaching the Elite 8 by defeating No. 11 UMass, No. 3 New Mexico and the Longhorns before falling 97-74 to the top seed in the East, North Carolina.
2002: Home turf for Pitt
The 2001-02 Pitt Panthers had the advantage of playing their first two games of the NCAA Tournament on home turf, with Mellon Arena serving as a South Regional host venue that year.
The Panthers, as the No. 3 seed in the East, handled No. 14 Central Connecticut State and No. 6 Cal Berkeley meeting 10th-seeded Kent State in the Sweet 16 at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky.
With a chance to advance to the Elite 8 for the first time since 1974, the Panthers instead were defeated in overtime by the Golden Flashes, whose win over Pitt extended a year-long win streak to 21 games, best in the nation at the time.
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Pitt trailed 29-20 at halftime but outscored Kent State by nine in the second half, tying the score with under a minute left in regulation before overtime was ultimately required.
From there, the Golden Flashes made good on several trips to the free-throw line, propelling them to a 78-73 win.
Said then-first-year coach Stan Heath poetically after the win:
“I told my team if people look at the definition and who Cinderella was … she was a girl who no one gave anything to. She tried to find a way to get to the dance and when she did, she got the prince.
“So I said, ‘You know what? If they’re saying we’re a hard-working team, a team that’s going to fight to get to where we want to be and then we’ll get the prize … All right. We’ll be Cinderella.’ ”
Kent State went on to lose in the Elite 8 to No. 5 Indiana, 81-69.
Pitt has not had the benefit of playing an NCAA Tournament game in Pittsburgh since 2002, although that year did mark the first of 10 consecutive Big Dance appearances for the Panthers under coaches Ben Howland and Jamie Dixon.
The 2024 field in Pittsburgh
No. 3-seeded Creighton (23-9) arrives in Pittsburgh as the highest-ranked team ready to play at PPG Paints Arena. The Bluejays look to follow up their Elite 8 run from last year, the deepest tournament run Creighton has managed dating to 1941.
Fellow 3-seed Kentucky (23-9) looks to end a five-year drought of failing to make it past the Round of 32.
Creighton will play No. 14 Akron (24-10), the MAC Tournament champion, and Kentucky takes on 14th-seeded Oakland (23-11), which won the Horizon League Tournament.
The last time a No. 14 seed upset a No. 3 seed was in 2021, when Abilene Christian defeated Texas.
No. 6 Texas Tech (23-10) squares off against No. 11 N.C. State (22-14), and No. 6 South Carolina faces No. 11 Oregon (23-11).
The Wolfpack and Ducks earned their bids via clutch performances in their respective conference tournaments.
N.C. State enjoyed arguably the most impressive run, winning five games in five days, culminating with an upset of top-seeded UNC in the ACC title game after finishing the regular season 10th out of 14 teams.
Oregon earned a first-round bye in the Pac-12 Tournament, finishing fourth in the league to conclude the regular season.
From there, the Ducks upset No. 1 seed Arizona in the semifinals before defeating Colorado, a team that swept them in the regular season, for the championship.
Per the NCAA, the No. 11 seed has upset the No. 6 seed 38% of the time dating to the tournament’s expansion in 1985.
The most recent No. 11 seed to do so? None other than recently snubbed Pitt, which beat Iowa State, 59-41, last year.
The year prior, three No. 11 seeds won their first-round matchups.
Justin Guerriero is a TribLive reporter covering the Penguins, Pirates and college sports. A Pittsburgh native, he is a Central Catholic and University of Colorado graduate. He joined the Trib in 2022 after covering the Colorado Buffaloes for Rivals and freelancing for the Denver Post. He can be reached at jguerriero@triblive.com.
If you're going
Here's a look at Thursday's NCAA Tournament matchups at PPG Paints Arena:
No. 3 Creighton vs. No. 14 Akron (1:30 p.m., TNT)
No. 6 South Carolina vs. No. 11 Oregon (4 p.m., TNT)
No. 3 Kentucky vs. No. 14 Oakland (7:10 p.m., CBS)
No. 6 Texas Tech vs. No. 11 NC State (9:40 p.m., CBS)