The Pitt wrestling team enters the postseason with a lot of question marks.

Can Cole Matthews, a two-time Atlantic Coast Conference champion, continue his upward arc after a very rough start to the season for another title run?

Will one or more Panthers outwrestle their seeds in order to qualify for the NCAA tournament in Kansas City later this month?

Is Dayton Pitzer healthy enough to earn a spot – either through placement or a wild card – in the national tournament?

That last one might be the one weighing most heavily on the minds of Pitt fans as the team prepares for Sunday’s ACC tournament in Chapel Hill, N.C.

The plan last year was for the true freshman to take a redshirt season in order to put weight on his 215-pound frame that would help him against bigger heavyweights in his 285-pound weight class. Pitzer’s impressive run at the Midlands last season, which included wins over All-Americans Cohlton Schultz and Trent Hillger, put pressure on coach Keith Gavin to scrap that plan. A few late losses, including one to North Carolina State’s Owen Trephan, and a slight injury convinced the coaching staff to stick with the plan and give Pitzer four chances at an NCAA title beginning this year.

Unfortunately, Pitzer dislocated his shoulder in a January loss to Schultz and hasn’t wrestled since. Gavin hoped Pitzer’s shoulder could heal enough with rest and rehab to allow him to make a postseason run, and the coach sounds fairly optimistic about those chances this week.

“If his shoulder holds up, he can beat anybody,” Gavin said on Wednesday. “It’s been good in practice. He wrestled live all last week.”

Pitzer will need to be able to beat anybody, as he enters the tournament as the fourth seed at heavyweight, and only the top two heavyweights are guaranteed a spot in Kansas City. He’ll probably be wearing a brace on the injured shoulder.

“I’m trying to get him to be disciplined with things. You don’t want to overextend yourself on shots,” Gavin said. “If he wrestles smart and stays in good positions, I think he’ll be OK.”

Pitzer will face Duke’s Connor Barket, a redshirt freshman who is 17-12 on the season – including a 7-1 victory over Pitt backup Geoff Magin – in the quarterfinal round. The winner of that will draw a semifinal against Trephan where a berth in the final – and an automatic qualifying spot – will be hanging in the balance.

Pitzer is ranked 13th nationally, so if he looks healthy and finishes third, he might end up with a wild card for the NCAA tournament.

He beat Virginia Tech’s Hunter Catka, the second seed, last season, but Pitzer didn’t wrestle any conference duals this year, meaning he could have been seeded anywhere from second to sixth in the bracket.

“His seed was the only one I was surprised by. Four seems a bit random,” Gavin said.

Matthews is seeded first at 141 pounds thanks to his unbeaten run through the ACC but, because of his record, didn’t earn an automatic qualifying spot for the conference. He has a bye in the quarterfinal round and will most likely need to beat UNC’s Lachlan McNeil to reach the finals.

Brothers Holden Heller (165) and Reece Heller (184) each are seeded second, with Holden’s 165-pound weight only granted two automatic qualifiers while 184 gets four.

“They’re all in good spots,” Gavin said. “I think the ACC was hoping to get one more allocation from125 to 165.”

Redshirt freshman Mac Stout is the only other Panther projected to qualify, as he is the fourth seed at 197 pounds, which was granted four qualifiers. If the bracket plays out as seeded, Stout would only need to beat Virginia’s Krystian Kinsey and Duke’s Kwasi Bonsu to place in the top four. He owns a major decision over Kinsey and a technical fall over Bonsu.

After that, things get a bit trickier for Pitt. Luca Augustine is the fifth seed at 174 pounds despite beating second-seeded Justin McCoy in the final dual of the season. Augustine has losses to No. 3 Tyler Eischens of UNC and No. 4 Alex Faison of N.C. State this season.

Gavin said Augustine looks to be over an injury that limited him in the second half of the season.

“He seems to be doing well,” the coach said. “His injury was four to six weeks of recovery. I didn’t plan to wrestle him against Rider or Virginia, but he wanted to, and he did really well, obviously, beating McCoy.”

Gavin believes that it’s possible for wrestlers such as Vinnie Santaniello, the fourth seed at 133, and Finn Solomon, the fourth seed at 149, to have a chance at the national tournament even if they finish one place outside of an automatic qualifier spot. Santaniello’s weight gets three automatic qualifiers and Solomon’s a pair. But 125-pounder Colton Camacho and 157-pounder Jared Keslar won’t enjoy that same luxury. Without reaching the finals, neither will advance to Kansas City.

“A couple like Colton and Jared, those guys are going to have to win outright,” Gavin said. “They’re not going to have another way to get to nationals.”

Camacho is just 9-10 this season, but if the sixth seed wrestles well could make it to the finals. He’ll face UNC’s Spencer Moore in the quarterfinals and, if he wins, Virginia Tech’s Cooper Flynn in the semifinals. Both wrestlers beat him by a point in dual meets.

“He’s been close with those guys. He got in deep twice against Spencer Moore and didn’t finish. It’s going to come down to finishing,” Gavin said. “They’re all going to be very competitive matches throughout the weight classes. They just have to be ready to go.”

Are they?

That question, along with a lot of others, will be answered by Sunday night, when the finals are shown on the ACC Network.