Perusing Top 25 - Pitt likely ranked Monday

[Pitt2006]

Important relevant games this week:
AP poll #30 Pitt destroying Lville and winning at FSU to avenge home loss: Can’t be ranked this week if they would have lost either of these.

#20 Providence loss at Saint Johns
#21 UConn loss at Creighton
#22 NCST loss at UVA
#24 Rutgers losses at Indiana and Illinois
#27 Duke massive loss at Miami and UVA
#28 Clemson loss at UNC
#29 Auburn losses at Texas A&M and to Bama
USC lost at Oregon who is ahead of Pitt in coaches poll where Pitt is 32
Tenn loss to Vandy that may help eye test
Edit: Vandy just won at Florida as well - maybe late season bubble run…

 

[9nationalchampionships]

Yep and no idea how FSU has lost so many games, they have solid talent on that team.

 

[upj87]

Important relevant games this week:
#30 Pitt destroying Lville and winning at FSU to avenge home loss: Can’t be ranked this week if they would have lost either of these.


#20 Providence loss at Saint Johns
#21 UConn playing #23 Creighton right now (both already won this week)
#22 NCST loss at UVA
#24 Rutgers loss at Indiana
#27 Duke massive loss at Miami
#28 Clemson losing to UNC
#29 Auburn loss at Texas A&M
USC lost at Oregon who is ahead of Pitt in coaches poll

2nd time this year they needed a win against Fla State to crack into it...came through today...never mind the teams ahead of them, no way in hell a team at the top off the ACC mid February with the best road record in the land on a 5 game wining streak is not a top 25 team...

 

[Pittnerski]

Haha just watch. Pollsters seem to hate us

 

[UPitt '89]

#24 Rutgers just lost for the 2nd time this week.

 

[upj87]

Haha just watch. Pollsters seem to hate us

no they don't...

 

[TheSpecialSauce]

If they aren’t ranked then it’s a crime.

 

[Pitt2006]

#24 Rutgers just lost for the 2nd time this week.

Updated to reflect that now, though Illinois was ahead of Pitt in Coaches votes I think

 

[wbrpanther]

Haha just watch. Pollsters seem to hate us

Not hate. Just ignorance. When they think Pitt they still see the last 6 years.

 

[HailToPitt1985]

Pitt should be top 15. But the pollsters don't see it that way.

 

[LivinWell]

Pitt lacked the overall wins that teams ranked 15-25 had last week. Those teams already had 18 wins+ Last week for the most part.

 

[President Stache]

no they don't...

Yes... they... do

And Northwestern who we beat by almost 30!! Just beat the #1 team in the country had are 17-7

 

[HailToPitt725]

Those one-pt losses to Vandy and Clemson are a killer right now. A 20-5 record likely has us ranked in the Top 20, if not Top 15. Oh well, water under the bridge… just keep stacking wins!

 

[CaptainMurphy]

Those one-pt losses to Vandy and Clemson are a killer right now. A 20-5 record likely has us ranked in the Top 20, if not Top 15. Oh well, water under the bridge… just keep stacking wins!

Yeah I don’t really get all of the angst over current ranking. Keep winning and we will end the season in the top 25. That’s really all that matters when it comes to polls. And they tend to matter much less than in football.

I’d rather just win the regular season conference championship.

 

[sonofabit]

Asterisk coming next to the ACC champ this year…Duke and NC off years don’t you know. Especially NC.

 

[9nationalchampionships]

Asterisk coming next to the ACC champ this year…Duke and NC off years don’t you know. Especially NC.

Didn't Pitt beat NC 5 out of the last 6 games?

 

[VincePITT]

Important relevant games this week:
AP poll #30 Pitt destroying Lville and winning at FSU to avenge home loss: Can’t be ranked this week if they would have lost either of these.

#20 Providence loss at Saint Johns
#21 UConn loss at Creighton
#22 NCST loss at UVA
#24 Rutgers losses at Indiana and Illinois
#27 Duke massive loss at Miami and UVA
#28 Clemson loss at UNC
#29 Auburn losses at Texas A&M and to Bama
USC lost at Oregon who is ahead of Pitt in coaches poll where Pitt is 32
Tenn loss to Vandy that may help eye test
Edit: Vandy just won at Florida as well - maybe late season bubble run…

I agree with you, but this is why, SOS (Strength Of Schedule) & OOC (Out Of Conference)! It seems those matter more than record!

 

[Pittnerski]

ACC needs to take care of business in OOC next year.

 

[PITT 76]

I think a lot, if not most, of the pollsters are lazy. They do the early polls based on wins and losses, Pitt, who started with 3 losses in the 1st 4 games, never deserved to be on the early polls.

Then, of course, Pitt was up to 7 losses by the 3rd week in January. Other teams in the rankings did not have that many losses. That's a lazy way of evaluating it, but I think that loss column becomes an overriding factor.

Now, anybody who's actually been watching knows that this Pitt team is in the stratosphere compared to the Panther team in the early part of the season. Pitt has beaten at least 3 ranked teams and bettered good teams while playing on the road.

Pitt is the kind of team high seeded tournament teams fear drawing.

Look on the bright side. It will probably piss off the players. That could provide extra motivation that sends them to an even higher level. There is so much potential on this team. Just keep winning and the sky is the limit.

 

[20-20Hindsight]

ACC needs to take care of business in OOC next year.

Or in the NCAA tourney. My guess is that the ACC, as a whole, will still do better than the B10, Pac10, and maybe even the B12.

 

[H2P2015]

If there was only a series of games where conferences play each other and see who is better. Maybe call it a challenge and we could compete against a league like the Big Ten.

 

[Pitt2006]

I posted this in the other poll thread yesterday but likely got overexcited. Upon closer look at metric wins and losses, they are likely fairly ranked in top 30 as no other top 25 teams have both a quad 3 and quad 4 loss. Saint Mary’s has two quad 3 and TCU has a quad 4, but Pitt would have worst losses at this point. They do have decent wins, but so do 22/25 of top 25. Now if they pick up the 9th quad 1/2 at VT this weekend, then I think they have a much stronger case.

Current AP top 25 Q1/Q2 wins and Q3/Q4 losses
1) 13 0 Bama
2) 12 1 Houston
3) 13 0 Purdue
4) 11 0 UCLA
5) 14 0 Kansas
6) 11 0 Texas
7) 9 0 Virginia
8) 11 1 Arizona
9) 11 0 Baylor
10) 8 0 Tenn
11) 8 1 Marquette
12) 9 0 KSU
13) 8 1 Gonzaga
14) 8 0 Indiana
15) 8 1 Miami
16) 11 1 Xavier
17) 8 2 St. Mary’s both quad 3
18) 8 1 Creighton
19) 9 0 Iowa State
20) 8 1 Uconn
21) 8 0 SDST
22) 8 1 TCU quad 4
23) 6 0 NCST
24) 5 1 Providence
25) 5 0 FAU
Others
NW 8 0
Illinois 7 0
Texas A&M 5 2 (both quad 4)
Mizz 8 0

So Pitt would be the only top 25 with a quad 3 and quad 4 loss. They do have 8 Q1/Q2 but debate really is if they should be 23-25. Could see both views.

Also appears like clear group of top 4 (Bama, Houston, Kansas, Purdue) and next group of four (ucla, Texas, Baylor, zona). After that, don’t see why Pitt can’t hang tough in a second round game.

 

[BLH2P]

Joe Lunardi’s new projection came out.

After going 2-0 in the week, Lunardi dropped Pitt a whole seed while Wisconsin who just lost to 11-14 Nebraska dropped from first four out to uh first four out.
Gotta beat BC cause you know pollsters are salivating at the prospect of dropping Pitt out entirely.

 

[pierre93]

I think Pitt needs to start their quads and run the damn pollsters over! H2P!!!

 

[nycpanther98]

Again, maybe there's a little disrespect or disbelief among the voters, but it's not egregious that we are ranked outside the top 25. Keep going 1-0 and the rest will take care of itself.

 

[20-20Hindsight]

If there was only a series of games where conferences play each other and see who is better. Maybe call it a challenge and we could compete against a league like the Big Ten.

The only trouble there is, it's done so early in the season - before December, and there's 3 months of basketball afterwards. And with the ACC going to 20 conference games, the overwhelming majority of those 3 months are in conference. If the ACC (or any conference) did not do well in OOC games in Nov., there is very little chance of recovery for its teams. The conference hierarchy is set, and then the algorithm is pretty much incestuous for the conference games. If the conference is deemed great by virtue of OOC games in November, then teams like Ohio State get favorable power ratings while still losing, as the algorithm says they're losing to great teams. Likewise, if the conference is deemed not so great because of November OOC play, then it's really difficult to ascend in the power rankings - NET, BPI, whatever.

To be honest, the ACC/B10 challenge didn't seem to do a damned thing for the ACC even though it went 8-6 . Overall, the ACC has been 13-12 against the B10 this year.

What most don't realize is that in almost any power ranking (except for the RPI), there almost certainly needs to be an original power score given for every team - which by definition would introduce subjectivity to the scoring/ranking from the outset, and then for at least a large part of the season. I assume Pitt had a low power score before the season started, and it's been hard to move up, because the same algorithm makes it so hard for teams originally ranked highly (UNC, Ohio St., etc) to move downward.

 

[SteelBowl70]

The only trouble there is, it's done so early in the season - before December, and there's 3 months of basketball afterwards. And with the ACC going to 20 conference games, the overwhelming majority of those 3 months are in conference. If the ACC (or any conference) did not do well in OOC games in Nov., there is very little chance of recovery for its teams. The conference hierarchy is set, and then the algorithm is pretty much incestuous for the conference games. If the conference is deemed great by virtue of OOC games in November, then teams like Ohio State get favorable power ratings while still losing, as the algorithm says they're losing to great teams. Likewise, if the conference is deemed not so great because of November OOC play, then it's really difficult to ascend in the power rankings - NET, BPI, whatever.

To be honest, the ACC/B10 challenge didn't seem to do a damned thing for the ACC even though it went 8-6 . Overall, the ACC has been 13-12 against the B10 this year.

What most don't realize is that in almost any power ranking (except for the RPI), there almost certainly needs to be an original power score given for every team - which by definition would introduce subjectivity to the scoring/ranking from the outset, and then for at least a large part of the season. I assume Pitt had a low power score before the season started, and it's been hard to move up, because the same algorithm makes it so hard for teams originally ranked highly (UNC, Ohio St., etc) to move downward.

The Top 6 ACC teams playing in the challenge all won (NC State didn’t play). VT and ND also won (ND destroyed MSU by 18). 3 of the top 7 Big teams lost.