My son asked me that recently. First time I have had the "good ole days" chat with him about Pitt basketball. Reminds me of my dad telling me about great teams from various sports from what seemed like a million years ago. Luckily, I put a lot of that stuff on DVD back then and I told him we'll watch some of those old games. Anyway, it got me thinking that that really wasn't that long ago.
"Was Pitt ever ranked #1 in basketball?"
- Thread starter Sean Miller Fan
- Start date
Hard to believe we are already 10 years removed from the ‘08-09 season when Pitt achieved the #1 ranking. Fun times to be a fan.
We act like this is ancient, yet a lot of football fans act like it was 2-3 years ago we were last ranked #1. It was 36 years ago. Otherwise known as a life time.
He was exposed to the Pitt/Butler highlights on YouTube. Apparently parental controls did not block that content. Shame on YouTube for exposing kids to Pitting! That's what sparked the question.
Pitt reached #2 in 1988, but not #1.
What is also interesting, when Pitt reached #1 for the first time in 2009, there were 9 total Big East schools ranked in the top 25 of both polls, which was a record for a single conference.
Pitt was ranked #1 in 2009. Pitt was ranked #2 in 2003, 2004, 2006, and 2011. Pitt was ranked in the Top 10 from 2001 through 2012. Pitt was Top 20 in 2013,2014, and 2016.
Kevin Stallings had the worst record in Pitt history, had the worst record for a coach in Pitt history, and had the worst power 5 team in D1 history, last year, Rock Bottom. Capel is pulling the sunken Pitt basketball ship out of the mud at the bottom of the ocean where Stallings and Barnes left it
Kevin Stallings had the worst record in Pitt history, had the worst record for a coach in Pitt history, and had the worst power 5 team in D1 history, last year, Rock Bottom. Capel is pulling the sunken Pitt basketball ship out of the mud at the bottom of the ocean where Stallings and Barnes left it
Hey, I still remember pulling up to T-Bones in Franklin Park (2002?), glancing at the front page of the USA Today in the machine with the top 5 preseason picks and seeing "PITTSBURGH". It was a very surreal moment etched in my memory.
Right, they were #2 in the country on the first week of Jan 1988, but not #1, right after beating #8 Florida with Vernon Maxwell and Dwayne Schintzius on National TV. It was a cool game. Smith had 30 points and Jerome had 3 points and 21 rebounds. The only bummer was that Rod Brookin sat on the bench the whole time and we wondered why until after the game we learned it was because he didn't make the grades.
And it was short-lived. We lost right after to Georgetown and our time at #2 ended.
Right -- Obama picked the 08-09 team to go to the final four. I believe he called Blair a "beast."
That team lost of course to Villanova and Scottie Reynolds.
It was the year before that we lost to Michigan State.
I remember that USA Today too. I was in a hotel in San Francisco at the time. I proudly presented the front page to my buddy.
Exactly right. I have that Georgetown (loss) on VHS. I believe both Georgetown regular season games from 1988 are now on Youtube and BOTH have fights. Of course John Thompson blamed Pitt for both of them and said they were the only team they fought that year so how can you blame his players? (which was also a blatant lie -- they also had a very nasty fight with Boston College.)
The next season, if I remember correctly, the Big East put in new rules that discouraged fights.
Right on all counts. Although I think the "fight" on for the second G-town game was not much more than a little scrum.
Yeah and it ended the game I believe?
Charles Smith was such a good free throw shooter for a big. That and the Vanderbilt game that should never be mentioned (whoops) I think he hit a lot of late FT's.
Did Jerome Lane ever face hack-a-Wilt/Shaq? I don't remember what the rules were.
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Wow....remember that. Schintzius. Scary looking dude, reminded me of the big Center from those great Soviet teams back then (forget his name).
I believe Chuck was 8-8 from the in the line in the final 2 minutes. I think he hit 15-17 FT for the game. Remember his freshman year game at BC when he was 18-21 from the line?
ESPN very recently did an article with this exact topic. Hawkins and Sabonis were on the team. I only saw Schmidt in something like 2 Olympic games and thought he was maybe the best player in the world
It only lasted a week, but that 08-09 was the first time Pitt ranked no. 1 in anything since 1982.
A bigger question might be will Pitt ever be #1 again. I doubt it. Not because we are bad now, but it is very hard to get to that height. There are a lot of very good blue bloods out there.
Not quite. We were actually ranked #1 for three weeks that year. The first time was for 2 consecutive weeks until losing to Louisville. We returned to the #1 spot a little later but we were knocked off by Providence.
I think most of us would agree that the 2009 team had more national title potential than the 2011 team (both were No. 1 seeds), but that 2011 team won the Big East regular season title outright (15-3 record) in a season when 11 (yes, eleven) schools made the NCAA tourney. Quite a season.
You 100% certain about that? I could have sworn it was two separate weeks, but only for a week duration, both times.
From Wikipedia:
H.C. "Doc" Carlson era (1922–1953)Edit
Henry Clifford "Doc" Carlson, MD took over as coach in 1922 and soon turned Pitt into a national power. In the era preceding the initiation of national tournaments, the Panthers were both contemporaneously[2][3] and later retroactively, by the Helms Athletic Foundation (1927–28 and 1929–30) and the Premo-Porretta Power Poll(1927–28), regarded as national champions.[4] Those teams were led by National Player of the Year, 3-time All-American and Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Charlie Hyatt.
Carlson was a ground-breaking coach who would be inducted into the Naismith and Helms Foundation Basketball Hall of Fames. In the late 1920s, Carlson initiated playing a "national schedule" by taking his teams on midwestern road trips that included games against several Big Ten schools and, in 1931, is credited as the first coach to take an Eastern team out west.[5] He also developed the widely emulated Figure Eight Offense and also experimented with various conditioning techniques, including the use of oxygen on the bench. Under Carlson, and led by two-time All-American Claire Cribbs, Pitt continued success through the 1930s winning four Eastern Intercollegiate Conference Championships. In 1935, Pitt, as Eastern Intercollegiate champions representing the best of the East, lost a 41–37 season-ending contest to SEC champion LSU in the American Legion Bowl in Atlantic City, a game on which LSU bases its claim on that season's national championship.[6] On February 28, 1940, Pitt played in the first ever televised basketball game, a 57–37 victory over Fordham at Madison Square Garden that was televised by NBC station W2XBS.[7] Carlson also led Pitt to its first ever NCAA appearance en route to the 1941 NCAA Final Four. Carlson's tenure at Pitt's helm lasted for 30 consecutive years before he retired following the 1952–53 season.
H.C. "Doc" Carlson era (1922–1953)Edit
Henry Clifford "Doc" Carlson, MD took over as coach in 1922 and soon turned Pitt into a national power. In the era preceding the initiation of national tournaments, the Panthers were both contemporaneously[2][3] and later retroactively, by the Helms Athletic Foundation (1927–28 and 1929–30) and the Premo-Porretta Power Poll(1927–28), regarded as national champions.[4] Those teams were led by National Player of the Year, 3-time All-American and Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Charlie Hyatt.
Carlson was a ground-breaking coach who would be inducted into the Naismith and Helms Foundation Basketball Hall of Fames. In the late 1920s, Carlson initiated playing a "national schedule" by taking his teams on midwestern road trips that included games against several Big Ten schools and, in 1931, is credited as the first coach to take an Eastern team out west.[5] He also developed the widely emulated Figure Eight Offense and also experimented with various conditioning techniques, including the use of oxygen on the bench. Under Carlson, and led by two-time All-American Claire Cribbs, Pitt continued success through the 1930s winning four Eastern Intercollegiate Conference Championships. In 1935, Pitt, as Eastern Intercollegiate champions representing the best of the East, lost a 41–37 season-ending contest to SEC champion LSU in the American Legion Bowl in Atlantic City, a game on which LSU bases its claim on that season's national championship.[6] On February 28, 1940, Pitt played in the first ever televised basketball game, a 57–37 victory over Fordham at Madison Square Garden that was televised by NBC station W2XBS.[7] Carlson also led Pitt to its first ever NCAA appearance en route to the 1941 NCAA Final Four. Carlson's tenure at Pitt's helm lasted for 30 consecutive years before he retired following the 1952–53 season.
DT is correct. Pitt was No. 1 for two weeks in January and one week in March. Perhaps what threw you off was the fact that the first week Pitt became No. 1 they only played one game and it was on a Sunday (against either South Florida or St. John’s as I recall). The next week they won mid-week and then lost at Louisville.
Thank you. Man, those were the days. 3 weeks in the top 25 would be refreshing at this point.
So we've played in 5 total contests in program history as the top team in the land?
Yes but those were five glorious contests in a season of which I tremendously enjoyed every second until the last.
I don't understand why people feel the need to speculate incorrectly about these things when it is so easy to actually find the info...
https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/pittsburgh/2009-schedule.html
Pitt was ranked #1 on Jan 5 then beat SJU the following Sunday. Pitt was ranked #1 again the following week and beat USF Wednesday but lost at Louisville Saturday (I attended this one
). They then made it back to #1 on Feb 23 after winning at UConn, but lost their next game at Providence on Tuesday. Technically they were still #1 when they beat SHU that weekend.
