Big East Basketball has the latest poll up, and Pitt comes in at #3 on the charts. Marquette upset UConn tonight, so that already makes this look extremely dated. It also completely tanks that planned post titled, “Welcome to the Big East, Bitch.”

Here’s the way I voted for this week.

1. UConn — They will take a tumble next week.
2. Villanova — Just a very, very good team.
3. Pitt — Soft schedule questions, mostly answered after this past week.
4. Louisville — Slipped a notch, mainly because Pitt won their challenge non-cons, while Louisville lost its earlier.
5. Cinci — So far, I’d say Adam Kennedy’s audition for a job elsewhere is going pretty well.
6. WVU — They are going to win and lose some headscratchers the way they shoot.
7. Syracuse — Can Syracuse win tough BE games if McNamara has a bad night?
8. Georgetown — This is why this is a deep tough conference. G-town did nothing to be this low, but also nothing to be higher.
9. Marquette — Now the only thing between them and a big jump next week is Cinci.
10. ND — So far they are like a Boston College football team: they win the games they are supposed to and lose to any at the same level or higher.
11. DePaul — A scary team to play because you can never be absolutely sure what will happen, but that doesn’t make them good.
12. Rutgers — They beat Princeton. Whoopie. So did Carnegie Mellon.
13. St. John’s
14. Providence
15. Seton Hall
16. USF

Here’s the thing about all 4 teams at the bottom. They are all depleted in their roster to one degree or another, and it looms even larger now that conference play is starting. St. John’s is still recovering from the loss of players a couple years ago from their own sexcapade scandal and Mike Jarvis created chaos. Providence just sheds them in some incoherent pattern, seemingly on a weekly basis. Seton Hall ended up with a house cleaning last year with players failing out, quitting and inexplicably going pro. USF has become the Big East MASH unit.

There’s actually some really good stuff on other blogs today to point out.

For those feeling stat and number curious along the lines of what I was talking about after Wisconsin, Matt Glaude of Orange 44 has the numbers for the Big East just before the start of conference play. He even provides more detailed explanation on the materials.

HeismanPundit meditates upon the vagaries of recruiting and evaluating high schoolers in light of Steve Slation’s performance against Georgia.

The lesson here? Sometimes those recruiting services are way, way off. This is obviously not a revelation to most of us who follow college football. There are plenty of examples out there of great players who were lightly recruited out of high school.

And I do grant that if a team gets most of the players that most of the teams want, then success usually follows.

But Slaton is a special, special player who has a good shot at becoming an All-American very soon. How did the recruiting gurus miss that one? Even more puzzling, how did the major powers not see what kind of talent this kid has?

I think part of it is coaching and using the player right. Slaton has some very good talent, but it is a credit to the Mountaineer coaching staff that they have used it correctly. Slaton has a great first step, and can cut back brilliantly. What the coaching has done is make sure he doesn’t dance around looking for the really big opening. Instead he has hit the spot quickly and without hesitation. Whether he simply fits their system, or they adapted to the talent it was an impressive sight.

Finally, over at Pitt Panther Hoops, Keith asked me 5 questions and I answered with my usual brevity and conciseness.

Looks like Rashad Jennings is definitely transferring.

Freshman tailback Rashad Jennings has decided to quit the Pitt football team and will transfer to another school closer to his home in Virginia.

Jennings will call Panthers coach Dave Wannstedt either today or tomorrow and officially ask to be released from his scholarship.

“I’ve got to have my final talk with Wannstedt and then that will be it,” Jennings said Monday.

Wannstedt is out of town and was unavailable for comment. A team spokesman said Wannstedt will make a statement on the status of Jennings and wideout Greg Lee later this week, after the coach returns to Pittsburgh and holds a team meeting.
…
Jennings said yesterday that he is still in the process of choosing which school to attend this fall. He listed Liberty, James Madison, Virginia and Virginia Tech among the possibilities.

“The decision now is where I’m going next,” he said. “A lot of schools from around the country have contacted me, but I’m not going anywhere besides a Virginia school. I’ll decide in a day or two.”

I’m glad I don’t have to make this decision. Jennings or Wannstedt’s. Jennings is doing the right thing for his family and himself by going closer to home. He will want to play on a good team, as much for his future and potential in the NFL. That would make UVA or VT the most likely.

Coach Wannstedt probably would like to make an exception and release Jennings from his scholarship in this case. I’m not sure, however, that Coach Wannstedt would be eager to let Jennings go right to UVA, with Pitt having a 2 game series with them starting this fall. There are competitve concerns.

Hopefully things will be worked out.

That is the theme. And while most of Domer Nation is still saying, “Wha’ happen?” over the Fiesta Bowl, ND and Pitt kick off the Conference play tomorrow night. The Irish have fallen off the NCAA bubble each of the last 3 years. Simply put, not enough quality wins in the BE or non-con. Add in an annual end of the season stumble and they do themselves in each year.

As for Pitt looking at Big East play, Coach Dixon argues that while the number of teams is up, the conference isn’t that different as far as night-in-night-out competition.

“To me, it is more of the same,” Dixon said. “The names have changed, but you know you are going to have good teams every night; and we have always been playing against the best people. There are a few more teams, but they are all good.

“But, it is a great thing — to be in the best conference in college basketball is a great thing for the schools and for our university. It is going to be hard, but we want to be in the elite in everything we do. And to be included in the Big East is a tremendous honor.”

Here’s a shock regarding Pitt’s non-con. According to the RPI, it’s looking better this week.

The Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) for Pitt has climbed to No. 10. Villanova, at No. 5, is the only Big East Conference team to rank ahead of the Panthers. Duke is rated No. 1, and Wisconsin is No. 7. The RPI represents a formula used by the NCAA to rate men’s and women’s college basketball team, combining such criteria as winning percentage, opponents’ winning percentage and strength of schedule. Pitt’s strength of schedule ranks seventh in the Big East and 126th nationally.

Wisconsin, South Carolina and surprisingly Auburn are all top-50 RPI teams, Pitt has faced to raise the level. Other teams like St. Peter’s and Vermont are looking better. It definitely helps reality, but not necessarily perception.

Now that Pitt is back in both polls, Coach Dixon is trying to keep the players from losing focus.

“Our whole thing has been to continue to improve,” coach Jamie Dixon said. “Not a lot was expected of these guys by people, but they have been gaining confidence and we’re continuing to improve.”

Dixon, whose team has won 11 games to start a season for the second time in the past three years, said his players appeared to have shrugged off the idea of appearing in both national polls.

“They don’t seem any different today than they were two days ago or before the Wisconsin game,” Dixon said. “I don’t see any real changes. I think they just look forward to the competition in practice that day, and that’s what they think about.”

But at least one player couldn’t contain his excitement, despite Dixon’s observation of his players.

“This team is very excited,” said a determined Benjamin. “A lot of people wrote us off. They wanted to say that Pitt was nothing but Carl Krauser, and that’s it.”

Notre Dame is still led by its outside shooting. Primarily Colin Falls and Chris Quinn. Two other Guards, Kyle McAlarney and Luke Zeller also put the ball up often from outside. Let’s put it this way: of the 4, only Quinn has more than half of his total field goal attempts and makes coming from inside the arc. The 4 also shoot a combined .406 on 3-pointers (78-192). Ronald Ramon and the perimeter defense will have a tough job.

Their inside guy is still Torin Francis, who has yet to show up against Pitt in these games.

The game notes for Pitt are here (PDF). The game is on FSN-Pittsburgh, and if you live in other markets — presumably Big East markets — you might have the game via ESPN Regional (check local listings). Pitt has won 4 straight against the Irish, 5 of the last 6 and is 3-0 against them at the Pete.

For the Krauser-Pitt record book watch, he needs 5 points to pass Jerry McCullough for 14th on the scroring list, 5 assists to pass Vonteego Cummings for 5th, and 2 more steals to pass Sam Clancy for 10th place.

At halftime Pitt will honor 3 of its great players: Billy Knight, Charles Smith and Donn Hennon. All 3 will be on hand.

I’ll even skip the couch-burning jokes for the day in honor of the Sugar Bowl win.

That fake punt to keep the ball from Georgia wasn’t just ballsy. It was well executed. Not only did the Hoopies win a BCS Bowl, they were the only Big East team to win a bowl this year. In this case the convential wisdom is correct — this was big for the Big East. Especially considering how Louisville gacked it away against Virginia Tech in the Gator, where all the Big East had going for it to that point was a weak-ass, “well the games were close” kind of claim.