I don’t take these projections seriously. Really, they can’t even be anything more than pure guesswork until the end of June. After players have stayed in or pulled out of the NBA draft. Even then, there’s a plenty of guesswork, but there is some time and spacing. Predicting right now has the element of looking too closely at how the team played at the end of the season (WVU) and not giving enough respect to the teams that were strong all season but stumbled in the post-season (ND).

I was collecting the various links, but NBE Basketball Report did a great job of collecting all the links in a couple of posts here and here.

Only one list completely excluded Pitt — a guy for the San Jose Mercury News. The highest ranking Pitt received was #2 (likes the coach and returning talent). The lowest, #16 (questions about perimeter shooters).

Really, the issue of who will be the primary SG (read, perimeter threat) seems to be the biggest question about Pitt.

There’s still no word on whether Mike Cook will get a 6th year. According to a blog by a Pitt News Assistant Sports Editor, he is hearing it is 90-10 that Sam Young comes back to Pitt for next season.

I chatted with a Pitt spokesman close to Pitt basketball earlier today. He told me that Pitt’s junior forward Sam Young, the winner of the Big East’s Most Improved Player award for this past season, is “90-percent sure” that he’ll stay at Pitt for his senior season.

I still expect Young to go through the draft camps. That just makes sense as a junior. He loses nothing by finding out what scouts think when they see him up close amidst similar competition.