The NCAA released the first set of coaches' rankings on Thursday.
The link is above if you want to see the whole article. I'll list Pitt guys below, but first, take note of these two paragraphs:
133-Micky 6
141-Cole 2
149-None
157-Badgett 28
165-Holden Heller 29
174-Luca 32
184-Reece Heller 15
197-Nino 1
285-None
Not too much different than what InterMat has. It's nice to see Nino at No. 1. I also like seeing Luca in there at 32. There are so many matches between now and the conference tournaments, that it isn't worth getting too worked up over these, but these projections would have eight NCAA qualifiers for Pitt, plus the two unranked weights have Casto, who was a blood-round guy last year, and Pitzer, who is No. 5 in InterMat's rankings.
Looking at it that way, if everyone wrestles up to their potential, Pitt could send all 10 starters to nationals. Do I think that's likely? No. But they have a far better shot than any year that I can remember.
Of course, the flip side of this is if you have a solid guy at every weight class, how do you lose to Maryland and WVU and nearly lose to Columbia?
The link is above if you want to see the whole article. I'll list Pitt guys below, but first, take note of these two paragraphs:
- The coaches’ rankings are determined by a vote of 14 coaches in each weight class with two head coaches from each of the seven conferences. For ranking purposes, coaches may only consider a wrestler that has been designated as a starter at a respective weight class. Wrestlers must have eight Division I matches in the weight class to be considered with at least one within the last 30 days.
- The coaches’ ranking is one of several criteria that will be evaluated by the NCAA Division I Wrestling Committee during the at-large selection and seeding process along with head-to-head competition, quality wins, Ratings Percentage Index (RPI), conference tournament placement, results versus common opponents and win percentage.
133-Micky 6
141-Cole 2
149-None
157-Badgett 28
165-Holden Heller 29
174-Luca 32
184-Reece Heller 15
197-Nino 1
285-None
Not too much different than what InterMat has. It's nice to see Nino at No. 1. I also like seeing Luca in there at 32. There are so many matches between now and the conference tournaments, that it isn't worth getting too worked up over these, but these projections would have eight NCAA qualifiers for Pitt, plus the two unranked weights have Casto, who was a blood-round guy last year, and Pitzer, who is No. 5 in InterMat's rankings.
Looking at it that way, if everyone wrestles up to their potential, Pitt could send all 10 starters to nationals. Do I think that's likely? No. But they have a far better shot than any year that I can remember.
Of course, the flip side of this is if you have a solid guy at every weight class, how do you lose to Maryland and WVU and nearly lose to Columbia?
