Pitt wrapped up its regular-season slate last Wednesday with a 73-56 road loss to Notre Dame, going 8-23 overall and 0-18 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. It was the Panthers’ first winless conference campaign in their 49 years affiliated with a conference, and perhaps the only thing softening the blow was the fact that they weren’t alone in their ignominy.

Unfortunately, that all changed over the weekend, as Chicago State snapped a 24-game losing streak on Saturday, defeating UMKC 96-82 for its first win in the Western Athletic Conference.

Update: Chicago State will win. Pittsburgh, the floor is yours. Or basement. — Pat Forde (@YahooForde) March 4, 2018

The Cougars were the only other Division I men’s basketball team without a conference win this year, so their sudden awakening in their regular-season finale left the Panthers as the only team to get blanked in conference play in the 2017-18 season.

If there’s a saving grace for Pitt, it’s that a win in the ACC is harder to come by than a win in most other conferences in college basketball. Still, other struggling Power Five programs like California, Rutgers and Illinois managed to find opportunities to sneak into the win column, and even Wake Forest finished with four ACC victories. So a winless campaign was avoidable.

The Panthers were presented with winnable games this season, too, as Georgia Tech, Wake Forest and Boston College all came to town during the conference schedule. However, Pitt was unable to take advantage of the subpar play of those teams, as they let their first-half leads over the Demon Deacons and Eagles slip away and were simply bullied by the Yellow Jackets.

Pitt’s problem boils down to inexperience, as Panthers head coach Kevin Stallings stocked the roster primarily with junior college transfers and freshmen after losing 11 players in the wake of his tumultuous debut season in Pittsburgh.

His gamble has not paid off, as the team has consistently appeared unprepared for ACC competition and little has been accomplished over the season in terms of player development. That lack of progress has led to a largely pessimistic outlook for Pitt next season, and as a result, Stallings now finds himself on the hot seat after just two years on the job.

While the regular season is in the books for the Panthers, they’ll get another opportunity to take down a conference opponent when they face Notre Dame once again in the ACC tournament Tuesday at 2 p.m. ET.