Pitt celebrated its outstanding basketball history in fine fashion on February 3, 2024 honoring the 1974 and 2009 NCAA Tournament Elite Eight Teams. The Panthers’ 1974 squad celebrated the 50th Anniversary of its magical season that closed with a 25-4 record, including a 22-game win streak. The 2009 team was honored on the 15th anniversary of its 31-win season that included the school’s first No. 1 ranking in the AP Poll.
1973-74
25-4
Overall Record
13-0
Home Record
- Pitt’s first team to advance to NCAA Elite Eight in the new NCAA format
- All five starters were Pittsburgh natives and were featured in a prominent story in Sports Illustrated
- Set a school record with 25 wins
- Won 22 consecutive games after losing the season opener to West Virginia
- Billy Knight became just the second player in Pitt basketball history to average more than 20.0 points per game in three consecutive seasons
- Averaged 80.8 points per game to its opponents’ 65.8 per season
- Extended home win streak to 27 games
The 1973-74 season was a special one in Pitt men’s basketball history. The Panthers began the season with an 82-78 loss to West Virginia at the Coliseum, an occurrence that wasn’t too surprising considering Pitt’s historic struggles on WVU’s home court, but the Panthers bounced back to defeat Rutgers, 36-21 in a game that was halted (and forfeited to Pitt) when a group of Rutgers students staged a sit-in demonstration on the court late in the first half. That started an incredible string of 22 straight wins.
Along the way, Pitt defeated the likes of Duquesne (82-65), Florida State (82-60), Connecticut (83-63), Arkansas (91- 83), Davidson (90-63), Duke (62-46) and Syracuse (71-56). Pitt averaged 80.8 points per game to its opponents’ 65.8 that season.
Pitt’s tallest player was 6’8″ junior center Jim Bolla, who later became the head women’s basketball coach at UNLV. Bolla, who passed away in 2022, remembered the season with tremendous pride.
“Everyone liked everybody, and we just played one game at a time,” he said in a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article several years ago. “We didn’t even keep track of how many…
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