Pitt is #2 in both polls. Actually receiving #1 votes.
A Buffalo sportswriter who is anticipating Pitt’s visit this weekend thinks Pitt is #1.
Full disclosure: I have been one of the 72 voters on the Associated Press basketball poll for several years. It is a task I take seriously, spending several hours during the week following scores and trends before voting on Sunday nights. But I would not do it if the polls helped determine who made the NCAA Tournament come March (poll rankings are not used by the selection committee when choosing schools).
Our weekly task got quite a bit juicier this week because I can’t stop myself from looking ahead to Saturday afternoon when No. 2 Pittsburgh, my No. 1 pick for two straight ballots, comes to Alumni Arena to meet the University at Buffalo.
We just don’t get this chance for an in-the-flesh view of a team that high in the polls very often.
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Besides, I’m not a coach or player. I’m allowed to look ahead. I know there are plenty of people at UB already doing the same thing and there’s no way for coach Reggie Witherspoon to slow down the buildup.
You can even go on Facebook.com and find plugs for a “Reggieville” tent city that’s planning to sprout outside Alumni on Friday afternoon so students can get the best seats when the doors open the next day.
Two days before his team dismantled Niagara on Saturday night, I couldn’t resist asking Witherspoon about Pitt. He laughed at me. I deserved it, too. It’s normally a journalistic no-no to ignore the next game and ask about another one.
Not this time. Witherspoon understood.
“It’s a college campus with 30,000 people running through here on a daily basis,” Witherspoon said. “I’m reasonably sure you’re not the only one thinking about it. If you’re a student and a college basketball fan, you’re probably watching ESPN and that means you’re hearing the typical talk about who’s No. 1. So there’s going to be a lot of talk around. Our job is to not pay attention.”
Pittsburgh will be the highest-ranked team ever to visit Alumni and the highest-ranked visitor to a Big 4 school since No. 1 Massachusetts came to St. Bonaventure in 1995 and 1996.
Mike DeCourcy at the Sporting News also listed Pitt as his #1 team (at the very bottom he lists his top-10).
Personally I think if they do make deep into the tourney this year they will get even better because that will open up recruiting and that added to JD’s coaching philosophy means success!
I always hear diehard Penguin fans complaining that the Penguins don’t get enough attention in Pittsburgh because of the Steelers.
The Penguin fans have nothing to complain about. That team gets plenty of press. The most ignored major sports team in this city is Pitt’s basketball team. Aside from the Steelers, they’ve been the most successfull team in the city the past five years yet they are routinely ignored.
