I love the response from Ronald Ramon regarding being ranked #25 in the Coaches Poll:

“It feels good to get ranked in the top 25,” sophomore point guard Ronald Ramon said. “We want to go out there and show people we can play. But it’s nothing new. It’s like, ‘Oh yeah, we’re ranked, but we’re just going to go out and play.’ “

Pitt has not played a demanding non-conference schedule, but the Panthers have beaten Penn State and Auburn by 37 points apiece, which grabbed the attention of the voters. Ramon said he and his teammates had been out to prove they were worthy of being ranked.

“We’re a school that everyone has their doubts about,” he said. “Is Pitt as good as everyone thinks? We take that personal, and we go out there and try to play as hard as we can.”

Coach Jamie Dixon said he did not promote the polls with his players and did not expect it to be a distraction for his team.

All they can do is to keep on winning.

The ND-Pitt game scheduled for January 4 at the Pete has been moved from an 8pm to 7pm start. Apparently to avoid too much conflict. Seems there’s this thing called the Rose Bowl between Texas and USC that night. It’s possible some people might be interested in watching that.

Tomorrow night, Coppin State. Pitt game notes here (PDF). Seems one of the notes is that Coach Dixon has yet to lose in December (I would prefer March and/or April).

I forgot the other thing that should be considered. What is the overall graduation rate for each university? It is more of a perspective thing, and gives a better idea of how far off from the “common” student a particular program is doing.

I had written in my other blog back in August about graduation rates at Ohio’s public universities — and finding myself in the uncomfortable position of defending tOSU. The numbers aren’t going to be perfect since they are different studies and slightly different time scales, but they do base on a 6-year period to graduate. Overall, at Pitt, the graduation rate is around 65%.

Obviously, the football and basketball are still lagging, but perspective helps.

So the latest NCAA Graduation figures came out, and Pitt didn’t do too well in key sports.

Football, 48 percent; basketball, 29 percent

This should not shock anyone. The seasons covered were Freshmen from the 1995-96 season to 1998-99. This is taking into account the changed standards which now includes JUCOs and transfers.

Honestly, I’m kind of surprised the basketball was that high. Those classes were at the height of the Ralph Willard error. I mean, think about the players that included: Kelli Taylor, Isaac Hawkins, Blount, and others who let’s just say were never serious about their studies for whatever reasons. There were just a lot of questionable characters at the time.

As for football, well, what can you say. Half Majors and half Harris recruits.

Dennis Dodd makes the argument that while it may be a less than positive thing — publicity-wise — for schools, it’s hard to blame many of the coaches unless they have been on the same job for an extensive period.

Meanwhile, the most accurate way to apply these grad rates is to the coaches who have been around since 1995, when the NCAA started counting. There are only 13 in I-A if you include just-retired Bill Snyder at Kansas State and Syracuse’s Paul Pasqualoni, who was responsible for the players in the last year of measurement (2003-04).

Oddly enough, BYU football only has a 40% graduation rate (it may have something to do with the Mormon missionary work, but still kind of amusing to note).

I will be more curious about the numbers in a few more years — when it reflects all of the Harris time and the Ben Howland/Jamie Dixon era.

A couple more articles about the results. I’m sorry, it is important, but considering I find most of the off-the-field stuff regarding big collegiate athtletics (football and basketball) to be a lousy process of indentured servitude, hypocrisy and lies that this tends to be a self-serving argument.

Schools and their fans at Boston College, Penn State and ND will point to their graduation rates as indicitive of how great their school and coaches follow the mission while then saying that it is an isolated incident when the players fire arrows through dorm walls, fights and their players are shoving counterfiet bills up their rectum to try and avoid being caught, uh, passing them.

It cuts both ways, and I just can’t work up the outrage.

You can view any school’s graduation rate, here. Pitt’s is here (PDF).

Remember Trevor Ferguson? A late, sleeper signee with Pitt. 6’6″ player who had good range inside and out. He was released from his NLI with Pitt after showing up for some summer school and workouts, because he was homesick and had family issues — his mother had passed away in the last year or so — so he wanted to stay closer to home in Florida.

Well, not so much (via Section Six):

N.C. State’s newest basketball commitment won’t have to wait long to join the program.

Trevor Ferguson, who was briefly a member of the Pittsburgh program and committed Monday morning, plans to enroll at N.C. State the day after Christmas.

He won’t be able to play or travel until after the 2006-07 exhibition games, but can practice immediately as a member of the scout team, his prep school coach said.

Tony Cole, Ferguson’s coach at New Creations Christian School in Richmond, Ind., said Ferguson chose Pittsburgh without ever visiting there because he was impressed with coach Joe Lombardi.

Cole said Ferguson didn’t realize he didn’t fit into Pittsburgh’s rugged, half-court style until he got there. Ferguson, a 6-6 wing player, left Pitt and enrolled at New Creations instead.

Well, isn’t that interesting. Based on that, one might think the kid pulled a punk move and used a dead mother as an excuse to get out of Pitt without losing eligibility or having to pay his own way for a year because he found out he wasn’t tough enough. This article notes the discrepancy between what was said back in August and now.

Didn’t realize or know about Pitt’s style of play? It isn’t exactly a new shift in philosophy from the last 5 years.

Of course that’s just a knee-jerk reaction. Nothing from the actual kid himself. Love to hear his explanation. Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem to want to talk. Letting his coaches do the flakking for him.

Call it a hunch, but I don’t think Coach Jamie Dixon will be letting a kid out of his NLI quite so easily next time.