This was a game Pitt simply had to get, following a defeat to lowly Florida State on Saturday.
The Panthers chose to give Wake Forest a dose of the medicine they took from the Seminoles, and in doing so, they did not only kept their NCAA Tournament hopes thriving for another game; they found perhaps another gear that they had searched for in moments this season.
Pitt's 81-79 holding off of the Demon Deacons at the Petersen Events Center was brought by, as Blake Hinson coined after the game, "a caravan of guys" who found ways to fit in different ways than we are used to seeing.