Kevin Stallings will take part in his second Senior Day at Pitt on Saturday, but on Wednesday night he was already facing questions about whether it would be his last.

The Panthers’ 63-57 loss to Wake Forest was their 21st defeat of the season, matching the record set by the 1976-77 team for the most losses in school history. They have yet to win an ACC game this season in 16 tries, giving Stallings a 4-30 mark in conference play in his two seasons at the helm.

That this team has struggled wasn’t much of a surprise. The Panthers are remarkably young with 11 players having begun the season with no Division I experience. However, even though Stallings isn’t necessarily underperforming against expectations, there is plenty of reason to wonder whether the Panthers administration will stick it out with him for a third year.

The athletic director who hired Stallings - Scott Barnes - left to become the athletic director at Oregon State late in 2016, and new athletic director Heather Lyke has seen attendance plummet under Stallings. Pitt averaged more than 10,000 fans per game in each of the first nine years of the Petersen Events Center’s existence. This year it’s averaging 3,975, with just 2,420 showing up for Wednesday night’s game.

But when asked whether he expects to be around next year, Stallings pointed out the obvious - it’s not for him to say.

“My confidence in that, really, is irrelevant,” Stallings said. “… It doesn’t matter what I think. Those questions need to be asked to the athletic director. I’m not here to be confident or unconfident. I’m here to help these guys be successful. I’m not doing a good enough job of that right now. We need to get better.

"I’m just not the right person to ask because at the end of the day it doesn’t matter what I think. We’ll keep coaching them. I’ll keep doing what I’m supposed to do until I’m told ‘Time’s up’ or whatever. I’ve got a great group of kids that I coach. I just want to help them, and I want to help them more.”

The Panthers have just two more regular-season opportunities to earn an ACC victory and avoid being the first team in school history to be shut out in conference play. But a win will be tough to come by with No. 1 Virginia coming to the Petersen Events Center on Saturday and the Panthers closing out the season at Notre Dame on Feb. 28.

Stallings was asked if he believed himself to be “on the hot seat.” He also demurred at that question.

“I think coaches in general live on the hot seat,” Stallings said. “Do I feel any more pressure? I’ve never spent a lot of time worrying about that. I try to do the best I can for my players every day. I said when I took this job that it would be about the players. That’s who it’s about. I’ll work tonight, try to help them figure out a way to be better for Saturday. That starts tomorrow. This is not about me. It’s about them and me doing what I’m supposed to do and that’s trying to help them be successful.”