Luke Winn’s power rankings in SI.com put Pitt in the #2 spot. It also gave a little love this way, which is always appreciated. Fox Sports.com also had Pitt at #2.
Meanwhile the ESPN.com power poll still keeps Pitt at #3.
By every count, UConn-Pitt is the biggest or second biggest game of the weekend.
Only a Duke-North Carolina showdown for the ACC title could knock a game between No. 1 Connecticut and No. 3 Pittsburgh off the top line. But the good news is you don’t have to choose. Why? Because UConn-Pitt is Saturday! And it’s an early tip! So what we have are four possible No. 1 seeds playing against each other in the same weekend on opposite days, and isn’t March Madness just great?
My couch has already indentations from my rear over the course of this season. Saturday, alone, will be a marathon.
It also led the list for USA Today’s weekend.
1. Déjà vu: Stop us if you’ve heard this one. In the weekend headliner, Connecticut puts its No. 1 ranking on the line Saturday at No. 4 Pittsburgh. OK, it was a Monday before and it was in Hartford, but the shuffling at the top in recent weeks gives the Panthers the rare opportunity to knock off the same No. 1 team twice in less than a month. The two could definitely meet again next week in the Big East tournament final, and both would almost certainly be No. 1 regional seeds in the NCAA tournament should that occur. But neither of these teams will treat this as a mere exhibition. An epic battle inside could develop between Huskies big man Hasheem Thabeet and Pitt’s DeJuan Blair if they can avoid early foul trouble.
Useless factoid.
Based on the coaches’ poll, the game between No. 1 UConn and No. 4 Pitt is the fifth matchup of top-5 Big East teams in the past 10 years. The fourth-ranked team has won all four games, including Pitt’s win at UConn in February. The others winners include: No. 4 UConn over No. 2 Villanova in ’06, No. 4 Villanova over No. 1 UConn in ’06 and No. 4 Pitt over No. 5 UConn in ’04.
Just not sure if this number coincidence counts. Pitt is #3 in the AP and #4 in the ESPN/USA Today sponsored Coaches. The game is on CBS, so they will be using the #3 ranking for Pitt.
