…that mean oh so much. Yesiree Bob, we may love it, we may hate it, but we sure as sugar can’t ignore the ol’ RPI rankings. Sure they’re not perfect, but many an important person, including them what select the NCAA Tournament of 64, er, 5, pour over these numbers as if they were the entrails of some cloven-hoofed beast given up so that the Caeser’s future may be foretold. To that end, I did me some checkin’ and figurin’ so that we all may get a better reckoning of the path that lay before our beloved Panther hoopsters. Plus, I was bored. So, here’s a little back o’ the envelope analysis re: our opponents RPI scores and rankings from now ’til the end o’ January. So, without further ado, here’s my mini-analysis:

Date Opponent RPI Ranking RPI Score
1/12 DePaul 19 0.6249
1/15 Louisville 46 0.5880
1/18 Rutgers 59 0.5769
1/21 St. John’s 158 0.4957
1/23 Syracuse 32 0.6000
1/28 Marquette 64 0.5753
1/31 Uconn 43 0.5905

Mean RPI Ranking: 60.1429

Mean RPI Score: 0.5788

Median RPI Ranking: 46.0000

Median RPI Score: 0.5880

For the record, Pitt’s RPI ranking was 12 and our RPI score was .6419. So poll(s)-wise, we’re actually pretty in line with the RPI calculations. Whether that factors come March is another question.

As for the numbers themselves, one can see that St. John’s, and to a lesser extent, DePaul, are the outliers when calculating the mean. Thus, the median. It’s here that Louisville becomes the ‘center’ of these rankings and scores. Overall, these figures point to the obvious: January’s going to be a tough month for the Panthers. Any winning record, even a record of 4-3, should be enough for us to remain ranked, excepting for a series of blowout losses against the likes of UConn.

Notes: I copied the RPI Rankings and Scores from MSNBC, so blame them if its all wrong. Also, this is current as of January 9th, so the game between Cinci and Uconn doesn’t factor into this. Still, I don’t think it will have a huge effect (I hope). I used Excel to crunch the numbers so if they’re off, blame Bill Gates. Hell, he’s rich, he won’t care. Also, the fomatting’s been giving me fits, so bear with me, as it’s only a Northern song, er, ‘cuz I’m new at this.

Pitt is ranked #11 in the Coaches Poll and #12 in the AP. In a moment of wierdness, UCLA under Ben Howland is #12 in the Coaches and #11 in the AP. Then there is the weekly Big East Power Poll. Showing that a power poll can be just as confusing as any other. Pitt was #3 last week, won their double-OT game with ND, while the 2 teams in front of them lost and Pitt fell to #4. I don’t pretend to fully understand, but here’s how I voted.

1. Pitt — Rose to the top almost by default in my poll. Only undefeated team left in the BE, and I feel like I’m setting them up to fall by doing this. In a fit of what may be considered pure bias, both Keith and I were the only ones to vote Pitt #1.
2. Louisville — Probably too high, but I didn’t really like what happened to the others behind them.
3. UConn — Waxed on the road against Marquette, and then had to squeak past LSU at home? Almost seems like the usual stuff to make Calhoun cranky and watch this team just get better as the season continues.
4. WVU — The big road win against Villanova. I’m not completely buying this team. They will run so hot and cold. See their eaking out a win against USF earlier in the week.
5. Cinci — Dealt with DePaul then went to Marquette and curbed their enthusiasm.
6. Villanova — Home loss to WVU was painful, probably too harsh a drop considering they went to Louisville and handled the Cardinals.
7. Marquette — Young team, tough injury, tough team and you just won’t know each game.
8. Syracuse — Almost lost in the shuffle. Unimpressive win over USF.
9. Georgetown — Once upon a time, beating Providence and St. John’s in the same week would have meant something more.
10. DePaul — Handled ND but not Cinci. Up and down as expected.
11. Rutgers — Oooh. Managed to win at home against Seton Hall by 4.
12. ND — Battled hard, but came up short twice. No inside presence will kill this team most of the year in the BE.
13. Seton Hall — They beat St. John’s
14. Providence — At least played well in losing to Louisville
15. St. John’s — I’m disappointed in this team. I expected better.
16. USF — Injuries and lots of them.

I was dead-on versus the blogpoll from 9-16. Marquette and Syracuse are flipped at 7 and 8. Same for Villanova and Louisville at 2 and 6.

And you thought there were blogs on everything. Here’s an article from the latest issue of Campus Technology magazine. It concerns the issue of delivering more and better cell phone content related to the college sports teams. Since I’ve used this blog to discuss the ringtones before, this was worth passing on. Pitt has more plans.

At the University of Pittsburgh (PA), Lori Burens, assistant director of
Licensing and Advertising, is looking forward to another aspect of mobile
content delivery. While Pitt has offered ring tones for about a year, Burens
explains that the school recently signed a deal with Collegiate Images to offer
a variety of logos and other images for users to install on their phones as
wallpaper. This deal marks the first time Pitt has signed with any aggregator to
distribute images. In addition to variations on the school logo, images include
action shots of football players, basketball players, the Pitt Panther mascot,
and cheerleaders, to name a few.

Once the deal goes live, Pitt students will have the ability to choose
from hundreds of different images and buy as many of them as they’d like for $2
apiece. Burens declines to reveal what percentage of each purchase will go back
to the school, but she says that the university is hoping to earn at least
$10,000 by the end of the school year. Ideally, she notes, students will
purchase five or 10 different images, store them on their phones, and cycle
images in any way they deem appropriate. However the image experiment plays out, the feature will complement the school’s healthy ring tone business, adding to
the number of forms of mobile content Pitt students and alumni can buy.

“If you’re willing to personalize your phone with a ring tone, there’s
no reason you wouldn’t be willing to add some images to the mix, as well,” she
says. “The more creative our [students and alumni] get with all of this, the
more revenue we’ll generate as a result, and that’s something that will make
everyone happy.”

One of the companies they list is called FightTones. I have to concede they have some very high quality ringtones, even if the logos they sell for Pitt are out of date. They only work though for Cingular, T-Mobile and Sprint — which I don’t have. For monophonic, crappy, more expensive ringtones you can get more here. I have Hail to Pitt (2) from Xringer on my Verizon network phone.

Like I said, a late start. That and not a lot of news early in the day.

I’m not sure if the limit on exempted tournaments is part of the reason for Pitt not getting to compete this year. From what I understood, it’s just that Pitt isn’t the most desirable draw of BE teams — teams like UConn, Syracuse, Louisville and even Cinci, G-town, ND and Villanova generate better sales and attention. Still, if it is the reason, then it won’t be for long if the NCAA scraps it as anticipated.

The Big East may be driving more changes in college basketball, including the NCAA setting a universal start date for the season. Why? Because Andy Katz on ESPN.com (Insider Subs.) is saying that the BE is looking very hard at going to an 18 game schedule next year to produce better schedule balance. He also has this:

Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon is a bit peeved at the Big East over his
schedule. The 12-0 Panthers opened league play with a double-OT win over Notre
Dame Tuesday, but don’t play again until Wednesday against DePaul — giving them
an eight-day break. Then he has to make three separate trips within six days at
Louisville (Sunday), at Rutgers (Jan. 18) and at St. John’s (Jan. 21). He said
just when the Panthers were hitting a groove, their routine has been disrupted.

For the record, the DePaul game is on a Thursday. Pitt will be hitting a brutal portion of the schedule. Not just in the teams they play, but the frequency. Add in Syracuse at the Pete on the 23rd before there is a bit of a breather.