Well both Pittsburgh papers are trying to help generate some excitement about the final two games Pitt will play in its own tournament by pointing out the fact that both opponents, like Pitt are unbeaten. Of course neither team is ranked, but that isn’t important.
I’ll concede that the final two games actually have potential, Murray State is one of the best mid-majors, and Florida State had one of the best recruiting classes last year. Still, like Pitt, they really haven’t played anyone of significance to this point.
Checking College RPI, I see that Florida St. has an RPI of 13 and Murray St. has an RPI of 109. Pitt has an RPI of 82. All of these are prior to the games played this week. This means, that Pitt’s RPI has dropped by beating two really low RPI teams. Florida State’s high RPI is a bit of a surprise, but it may be illusory since it gets a boost from being in the ACC and benefits from the big wins in that conference.
I bitched about this tournament when I first heard about it. I still don’t like it. Pitt has to win both of these games, or they will tumble right out of the top 25 and their RPI will plunge — potentially to the triple digits. These are also the closest Pitt will come to a true test until Big East Conference play begins.
Even the Pitt players know they have played a pathetic schedule that tells them nothing.
[Julius] Page went on to say that he’d have preferred a tougher non-conference schedule to this point, and that the next couple of games will give him a true gauge of where the team is heading into conference play in less than three weeks.
“We need some tests before January,” Page said. “We really get to see where we stand right now. We’ve been playing a lot of games in a short time, so it’s hard sometimes to point out to guys what they’re doing wrong because we’re not practicing. These things are actually happening in games and you can’t stop things. For Chris (Taft, freshman center), he’s not going to guard guys three inches shorter than him in January. He’s seeing that now, but that’s not how it’s always going to be. But that’s why our practices are so good, we get at each other. And it helps everybody learn what to expect.”
And of course, none of these games are on TV. Not even in the Pittsburgh market.
