As well reported, Pitt is #9 in both national polls. In the latest Big East blog poll, Pitt is inexplicably ranked #3. My vote was this way.

1. Pitt
2. UConn
3. WVU
4. Villanova
5. Syracuse
6. Louisville
7. Georgetown
8. Cinci
9. Marquette
10. Rutgers
11. DePaul
12. ND
13. Seton Hall
14. St. John’s
15. Providence
16. USF

USF with its injury depleted team seems to have a lock on the basement. Seton Hall and Providence are falling to near the bottom, and St. John’s seems to be taking a step back. Nowhere is it clearer about the depth of this confernece with DePaul, Rutgers and Marquette all trying to get into the top-8.

I’m sure many of you missed Pitino being interviewed at halftime of the game on Sunday due to flicking to the Steeler game. You can see and hear it here.

Listening to it, he wasn’t upset at the way Pitt was playing. He was upset that his guys weren’t matching them. As he said, the “refs are calling it fair.”

Glenn Wohl at the Rutgers blog “RAC ‘Em Up” and I are doing the Q&A exchange. You can read my answers to his questions here. These were his responses to some of mine.

Is Gary Waters, dead coach walking? Does he need to make the NCAA or NIT? Or just get to the BET and look respectable? Fred Hill was a great hire, obviously, just from recruiting alone, and is his ascension inevitable?

There are 3 main schools of thought on Gary Waters:

1) fire him now, he is not the man to get the job done;
2) if we don’t make the NCAAs this year, fire him; and
3) get to BE Tourney and NIT this year, NCAA next year. Anything less, then fire him.

I think he gets next year regardless, barring a major collapse this year. Many people believe Hill to be the heir apparent, whether Waters being fired or moving to greener pastures. In addition to recruiting, Hill has been credited with Douby’s return to RU. I don’t know enough about Hill’s coaching prowess and whether he is a good hire, but he is certainly active on the sidelines during games. I also don’t know if he aspires to be a head coach, as there is a good chance the Seton Hall job will open up after this year.

Quincy Douby is the primary scoring threat, and Marquis Webb is the defensive shut-down artist for the team. Who needs to help them out for Rutgers to win against Pitt? In what ways (rebounding, scoring, defense). If Pitt shuts down Douby (holding him under 15), can Rutgers win?

I don’t think RU has that one guy in addition to Douby who can pick up the load. It requires a collective effort from anyone, though Webb, Anthony Farmer, JR Inman, and one of the big men (Jimmie Inglis or Adrian Hill) are the likely candidates.

Inman would appear to be the most likely candidate due to his size and athleticism, but he is only a freshman. I think the other guys will contribute defense and rebounding regardless. They must contribute offense.

RU won at DePaul with Douby struggling for 20 (he shot 6-20) from the field. Pitt is better than DePaul, but Douby usually plays well at home. I doubt RU could win if he doesn’t get 20-25, which is a big problem for RU. Last year, Webb shut down Krauser and Ramon stepped up for Pitt. Last week, RU held Ray in check, and Kyle Lowry stepped up. Not sure we have that guy on our roster.

Why should people believe that this year will be different for Rutgers? By that, I mean will they be the team that plays very well at home, getting an upset or two, but look lost away from the RAC? Not to be mean, but the reputation Rutgers has earned is that it just is not a good road team.

You’re not being mean, just truthful. RU still needs a signature victory, which we all hope is tomorrow night. At a minimum, they must beat the weaker teams (St. John’s, USF, Seton Hall) on the road.

The reason to believe this year will be different? A few:

1) Douby has elevated his game. He is no longer just a long-rage bomber. He can drive to the basket, and is a more proficient passer.
2) The halfcourt defense is much improved.
3) The freshman are contributing, especially Farmer and Inman.
4) Webb may be the best defender in the league, maybe the country. He simply shuts down his opponent, which includes to date, Mardy Collins (Temple), Allen Ray (Nova), and Sammy Mejia (DePaul).

There will be more exchanges coming.

Here are the Pittsburgh papers’ stories on Tamarcus Porter committing.

“He loved the facilities when he went to camp there last summer and he just feels like it would be a place for him to play early,” said Pahokee coach Leroy Foster. “He loved coach [Dave] Wannstedt and also [assistant] coach Charlie Partridge, who recruited him.”
…
“He’s a very versatile player,” Foster said. “You can put him anywhere on the field and he will give you results. He’s a tough competitor who plays a physical style.”

Porter also visited Boston College in September. Foster said Porter also had scheduled visits to Virginia and Wake Forest, but will cancel those trips. Foster also said he expected Porter to wait a week or two before making a decision, “but I think this whole recruiting process was just getting too much for him.”

The Atlanta Journal Constitution looks at teams that are surprising in the recruiting front. Headlining the group of 5:

1. Pitt. On the field, the Panthers lost to Ohio University and Rutgers in Year 1 of the Dave Wannstedt era. Off it, they’ve whipped Florida State, Michigan and Southern Cal.

The nation’s top-ranked tight end — Nate Byham of Franklin, Pa. — turned down half the Top 25 to commit to Pitt. Fellow Pennsylvanian Dorin Dickerson, a top-five receiver recruit nationally, picked Pitt over LSU, Michigan, Nebraska and Ohio State.

With 21 commitments, the Panthers are poised for a top-10 finish.

“They are killing it,” Scout.com analyst Jamie Newberg said.

Nice to read.

Everyone wants to talk about the polls and rankings.

Pitt has been ranked in the top 10 in each of the past four seasons. So when the Panthers cracked the top 10 of both polls yesterday for the first time this season, it didn’t exactly make waves among the players.

“You can tell from the preseason rankings that they don’t really mean much,” junior forward Levon Kendall said of the polls. “I don’t think we were in the top 50 when the season started. They’re not really representative of the truth. It’s something you really try not to worry about too much. It’s nice to get the recognition, but there’s always going to be critics and there’s always going to be people who doubt you no matter what you do.”

Pitt is No. 9 in The Associated Press and USA Today/ESPN polls after its first victory against a top-10 team Sunday at Louisville. It is the first time since December 2004 that Pitt is ranked in the top 10.

Levance Fields makes this point.

“A lot of people probably are going to start taking us a little more seriously,” said Pitt freshman Levance Fields, who scored a team-high 13 points against the Cardinals.

Coach Dixon is trying to downplay it.

“We don’t go really too much by the rankings,” he said. “It’s not something we really pay attention to. It’s brought to our attention, to be honest. You want to win each game out. If you do that, you’re going to be in those type of rankings. The biggest emphasis is improving every time out. We’ve got to get better in a lot of little things.”

Pitt (14-0, 3-0 Big East) reached the top 10 last year for three successive weeks at No. 10, but finished the season out of the polls after a first-round loss to Pacific in the NCAA Tournament.

“This team has improved from the beginning of the year more than any team I’ve been around,” Dixon said. “From the exhibition games through the 14 (regular-season) games, they’ve improved tremendously. But we have a lot of areas we can improve in. Maybe that’s because of our youth.”

In fact, Coach Dixon is not enjoying the national attention to some degree, because people keep questioning the legitimacy of the team. And just how good is Pitt?

And, as far as being tested?

“I’ve had that first-test question about eight different times this year. We’re used to that first test. It seems like it’s not a test once you win the game in some people’s eyes, but we’ve played good people. Again, Wisconsin is three in the RPI so I guess we’ll have to get the one and two RPI teams to get a real test in some people’s minds. But, hey, we’re going to play very good teams and we’ve got to continue to improve. We don’t think we’re anywhere near where we need to be and our guys understand that and that’s been our emphasis all year. This team has improved throughout the year, dramatically, more so than any team I’ve been around in 14 years and it continues to get better.”

Pitt was supposed to be tested by traveling to South Carolina. Then facing Wisconsin. Then conference play opening with Notre Dame. Then a trip to Louisville. It does seem rather monotonous to keep being questioned. Still that’s what happens when you’ve effed with perceptions.

Pitt was supposed to be rebuilding. They were supposed to be a struggling bubble-team at best this year with all the new players. They weren’t supposed to be in the top-25, let alone the top-10.

That has been a real factor in holding Pitt back, just as it kept teams like BC or Wake in the polls longer than they should. Preseason perceptions, and not wanting to let go. Stewart Mandel at SI.com had a bit discussing that.

It seems to me the pollsters are still clinging to the pecking order they established in November, so much so that a team that started the season unranked (Ohio State) still can’t eclipse a team that started in the top 10 (Louisville) even if both have similar resumes. Considering the teams have now played as many as 16 games in some cases, the AP and Coaches’ polls have got to be the slowest-reacting organizations since FEMA.

I realize this is not football, in which I’m an AP voter and in which one loss can send a highly ranked team spiraling. Given that basketball teams play 30-plus games, one has to be careful about reading too much into one bad week. I was puzzled when then-No. 2 Texas dropped just four spots after its Dec. 10 debacle against Duke at the Meadowlands (which was followed by a blowout loss by Texas to Tennessee in Austin). But the ‘Horns have since beaten Memphis (on the road) and Villanova. They’re not worthy of No. 2, but it’s probably a good thing they didn’t fall to 22, either.

At some point, however, you’ve got to stop giving teams the benefit of the doubt. Kentucky has been a walking train wreck all season, yet it took until last week for the Wildcats to finally fall out of the Top 25. Ditto for Wake Forest, despite having more home losses to DePaul (one) than it does point guards.

No one likes being wrong. So you give those teams you picked a little benefit of the doubt as long as you can. That would be during the non-con, when few teams are truly tested and you can rationalize things easier. Conference play tends to shake things out.

Sorry, late start today. Other duties that kept me from being chained to the computer. Stuff, soon.