The Sporting News puts Pitt at #5 in its preseason rankings and has the preview for them up.
This is Pittsburgh we’re talking about. This is the place that Herb Sendek, Skip Prosser, John Calipari and at least one sportswriter you might know departed so they could move up a little in the basketball world. This not only is 100 percent Steelers country, but also is a place where winters mostly have been occupied by hockey talk. It is amazing the city has come so far so fast in adopting basketball as a favored pastime.
There is one final step, though, for Pittsburgh to become a true basketball town.
Get the Panthers to the Final Four.
They’ve won the Big East regular season. They’ve won the Big East tournament. They’ve advanced to three Sweet 16s. All these were moments of profound joy for the few basketball-loving folks around long enough to remember when the city high schools turned out the likes of Maurice Lucas and Kenny Durrett and the only really big hoops night of the year was the Friday in April when Sonny Vaccaro staged his Dapper Dan Roundball Classic. To engage the entire town, though, Pitt stepping into the Final Four would be the golden ticket.
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Some teams appear deep because they have a lot of veterans with established credentials and/or young recruits with lofty reputations. Pitt’s a little different. What Pitt can do that few others can is search through its pile of talent for the right component that fits on a given night.
The trick if find that component early enough in the game.
Over at ESPN.com they have their 9 “experts” pick their Final Four teams. Two of them pick Pitt in the FF. Fran Fraschilla is one of the people picking. The other might be something of a stunner (it was to me), Doug Gottlieb. I mean, on the bright side, it wasn’t Dick Vitale.
