You may have heard something about it.

Like the rest of us, several of players were not even watching the UNC game.

Several members of the Pitt basketball team gathered inside an Oakland apartment Sunday evening to watch the Philadelphia Eagles NFC Wild Card game at Minnesota.

That’s when the text messages started to flood the players’ cell phones.

North Carolina, the unanimous No. 1 team in both the Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today Coaches polls, trailed at home to Boston College.

“We saw (Boston College) was up 15,” senior point guard Levance Fields said. “That’s when we were like, ‘Whoa.'”

Which is essentially what everyone else said when they found out.

The players have been saying and doing all the right things.

When it became clear Pitt would be atop today’s The Associated Press Top 25 poll, the players gathered late Sunday night for a shootaround at Petersen Events Center.

Many of them returned to the gym early Monday morning.

“We could look at it two ways,” senior forward Tyrell Biggs said. “It could be a distraction, or it could be motivation. We want to look toward the motivation.”

Pitt is taking its newly minted No. 1 ranking in the AP Top 25 men’s basketball poll in stride. The coaches and players say it won’t inflate their egos or alter their underdog approach.

“Nothing has changed at all,” senior forward Sam Young said. “We’ve just got more people believing in us now.”

And recognizing there is now a bulls-eye.

“People are gunning for us now,” senior point guard Levance Fields said. “We’re the top dogs in the country. We have to play that way and practice that way.

…

“It’s something every basketball player dreams of, being No. 1 as an individual and as a team,” senior forward Sam Young said. “That’s what we work for. Now that we have it, we have to keep it. We’re here now, but we’re not done. We’re going to try to keep it as long as we can.”

Ron Cook embraced the moment.  Assistant coach Brandin Knight deflected the silly questions of comparing this team to his teams.

“To try to rank this team with the other ones … I say the same thing every year,” Knight said. “Let these guys be them. It’s not 2002, 2003 or 2004. This is a new era. This is Levance Fields, Sam Young, DeJuan Blair. This is their era. Let them shine as they may.

“We make comparisons in the locker room, and it’s fun to joke around. But, at the same time, I don’t talk about it with Levance. People always say talk about what you used to do. I say for what? I’m not playing anymore. I want them to do greater things than we did.

“Right now, it’s not something we can judge, is this team better? The [No. 1 ranking] doesn’t make this team great or better than ours. What makes them great is that they continue to compete and play well throughout the season.”

Comparisons come after the season. Hopefully, this team will rank at the top.