This late in the season and a week in-between games. (Is it mid-terms already? I thought that was the week before Spring Break?) That has to throw things off for stories. It means spacing some things out, and using filler material. For everybody.
That means the stories today are on rankings. A facile RPI discussion from the Post-Gazette. Of course it dredges up Pitt’s past RPI versus where it got seeded in the NCAA.
Pitt’s strength of schedule is 44th, the worst rank of any team in top 10 of the RPI. But the Panthers gain points in several other categories. In the new formula that was adopted a few years ago, road losses count as 0.6. Home losses count as 1.4. So, in the eyes of the selection committee, Pitt has 2.4 losses.
Pitt is 15-0 at home this season and 5-4 away. The Panthers also have fared well against other top teams in the RPI. They are 11-1 against teams in the RPI top 100. They are 2-2 against teams in the top 25, 3-1 against teams 26-50 and 6-0 against teams 51-100.
Pitt’s only bad loss came at St. John’s. The other three came against Connecticut, Georgetown and Marquette, which are all in the RPI top 28.
That should be 11-3 against teams in the RPI top 100. The story uses the RPI put out once a week by Jerry Palm. Unfortunately, it is already a week old when used in the story (the RPI SOS in the story was dated Feb. 14). When the new version comes out, Memphis will actually have a weaker overall SOS (see the daily updates provided by Ken Pomeroy).
The other major problem with this story is that by using the CollegeRPI data, you don’t see the non-con SOS which is what penalized Pitt in the NCAA seedings the last couple of years.
The Panthers also are benefiting from the strength of the Big East and the performance of their non-conference opponents. Other than Duquesne, Maine and St. Francis, N.Y., Pitt’s non-conference opponents are playing well.
Throw Vermont and Robert Morris in there as well (RPIs of 219 and 216). Not to mention it appears Coppin State just cannot get under the 150 RPI mark. That means 6 of Pitt’s 11 non-cons have RPIs lower than 150 and only 2 of the remaining 5 were under 100.
Believe me, the NCAA selection committee will have plenty of excuses to give Pitt a 4 seed at this point. The teams where it will be interesting to compare in seedings come the Tournament will be Illinois, NC State, Florida, BC and George Washington.
The Trib. story is probably even lighter as all it discusses is how Pitt barely moved in the Polls. Not to mention how the other Big East teams fared in the polls.
