Everyone wants to talk about the polls and rankings.
Pitt has been ranked in the top 10 in each of the past four seasons. So when the Panthers cracked the top 10 of both polls yesterday for the first time this season, it didn’t exactly make waves among the players.
“You can tell from the preseason rankings that they don’t really mean much,” junior forward Levon Kendall said of the polls. “I don’t think we were in the top 50 when the season started. They’re not really representative of the truth. It’s something you really try not to worry about too much. It’s nice to get the recognition, but there’s always going to be critics and there’s always going to be people who doubt you no matter what you do.”
Pitt is No. 9 in The Associated Press and USA Today/ESPN polls after its first victory against a top-10 team Sunday at Louisville. It is the first time since December 2004 that Pitt is ranked in the top 10.
Levance Fields makes this point.
“A lot of people probably are going to start taking us a little more seriously,” said Pitt freshman Levance Fields, who scored a team-high 13 points against the Cardinals.
Coach Dixon is trying to downplay it.
“We don’t go really too much by the rankings,” he said. “It’s not something we really pay attention to. It’s brought to our attention, to be honest. You want to win each game out. If you do that, you’re going to be in those type of rankings. The biggest emphasis is improving every time out. We’ve got to get better in a lot of little things.”
Pitt (14-0, 3-0 Big East) reached the top 10 last year for three successive weeks at No. 10, but finished the season out of the polls after a first-round loss to Pacific in the NCAA Tournament.
“This team has improved from the beginning of the year more than any team I’ve been around,” Dixon said. “From the exhibition games through the 14 (regular-season) games, they’ve improved tremendously. But we have a lot of areas we can improve in. Maybe that’s because of our youth.”
In fact, Coach Dixon is not enjoying the national attention to some degree, because people keep questioning the legitimacy of the team. And just how good is Pitt?
And, as far as being tested?
“I’ve had that first-test question about eight different times this year. We’re used to that first test. It seems like it’s not a test once you win the game in some people’s eyes, but we’ve played good people. Again, Wisconsin is three in the RPI so I guess we’ll have to get the one and two RPI teams to get a real test in some people’s minds. But, hey, we’re going to play very good teams and we’ve got to continue to improve. We don’t think we’re anywhere near where we need to be and our guys understand that and that’s been our emphasis all year. This team has improved throughout the year, dramatically, more so than any team I’ve been around in 14 years and it continues to get better.”
Pitt was supposed to be tested by traveling to South Carolina. Then facing Wisconsin. Then conference play opening with Notre Dame. Then a trip to Louisville. It does seem rather monotonous to keep being questioned. Still that’s what happens when you’ve effed with perceptions.
Pitt was supposed to be rebuilding. They were supposed to be a struggling bubble-team at best this year with all the new players. They weren’t supposed to be in the top-25, let alone the top-10.
That has been a real factor in holding Pitt back, just as it kept teams like BC or Wake in the polls longer than they should. Preseason perceptions, and not wanting to let go. Stewart Mandel at SI.com had a bit discussing that.
It seems to me the pollsters are still clinging to the pecking order they established in November, so much so that a team that started the season unranked (Ohio State) still can’t eclipse a team that started in the top 10 (Louisville) even if both have similar resumes. Considering the teams have now played as many as 16 games in some cases, the AP and Coaches’ polls have got to be the slowest-reacting organizations since FEMA.
I realize this is not football, in which I’m an AP voter and in which one loss can send a highly ranked team spiraling. Given that basketball teams play 30-plus games, one has to be careful about reading too much into one bad week. I was puzzled when then-No. 2 Texas dropped just four spots after its Dec. 10 debacle against Duke at the Meadowlands (which was followed by a blowout loss by Texas to Tennessee in Austin). But the ‘Horns have since beaten Memphis (on the road) and Villanova. They’re not worthy of No. 2, but it’s probably a good thing they didn’t fall to 22, either.
At some point, however, you’ve got to stop giving teams the benefit of the doubt. Kentucky has been a walking train wreck all season, yet it took until last week for the Wildcats to finally fall out of the Top 25. Ditto for Wake Forest, despite having more home losses to DePaul (one) than it does point guards.
No one likes being wrong. So you give those teams you picked a little benefit of the doubt as long as you can. That would be during the non-con, when few teams are truly tested and you can rationalize things easier. Conference play tends to shake things out.
