First 08-09 Pre-Season polls

First off, these early polls are garbage. Do yourself a favor and copy those lists somewhere and compare them to the actual preseason poll (which, by the way, is also garbage). Everything will be so far off it is ridiculous.

Even so, it is interesting to see what people think of our program. The #3 spot is WAY too high in my opinion, but Pitt is definitely getting some respect. EVERY poll I have seen has us in the top 15. Personally, I think that we could definitely be a top-10 team...but then again, so can 5 other Big East teams.

Guess what, just to flame the hype that will lead to our likely inevitable meltdown, Lunardi just put up his first Bracketology and right there in print: Pitt as a #1 seed.

Not just a # 1 but THE # 1.  Play-in-winner.  With our luck we'd be the first to screw up the 1 seed's perfect opening round record lol.

I don't like it, except that it makes people doubt us even more, in some cases (they'll be like "but WE should be there"...)

BREAKING NEWS....PITT IS NOW #2!!!

haha...just kidding. But Augustin (Texas) just declared, so wouldn't that move them down the list and bring everyone else up??? Now all we need is for the big-3 at UNC to declare (Hansbrough, Ellington, & Lawson) and we will be #1...

(Can you sense the sarcasm???)

I'm all for the media-love early, but the bottom line is that the Big East is too brutal to get a top seed. The conference is too deep, too talented. Pitt legitimately could be the best team in the nation, but we'd never get that one seed because there is just too much tough competition in the Big East not to get 3-4 losses. Memphis was phenomenal last year, but they would have dropped 3 games in the Big East for sure. Same for Kansas or UNC. The problem is once the season gets underway, the pollsters just look at the W-L record and automatically drop someone when they lose, with only a minimum of regard as to the circumstances of the loss. So while its fun to bask in the media attention, just remeber, no matter how good Pitt is, they play in the best conference in the nation, which means they will in all likelihood be looking at a 2-3 seed. Not to mention the fact that the selection committee hates on Pitt like its their job--but thats a story for next march!

Demon Deekan:

I disagree.  I think a tough conference works FOR the teams that get beat up, while a weak conference works AGAINST a team with one or two losses.

For example, Memphis's only loss last year was against the number two team in the country, Tennessee.  Yet that loss dropped them out of the top 5?  Even though it was their only loss?  Again, this may be a bad example, since Memphis did end up getting a number one seed and made it to the championship game, but hopefully you understand the point.

A team in a tough conference may get credit for losses.  Even losses against the worst teams in that conference.  If Pitt has four losses in the Big East next year, it will get written off as playing in the toughest conference in the nation.  Even if two of those losses were against Rutgers and South Florida.

Conclusion:  Weak conference gets penalized more for one loss against a great team than strong conference gets penalized for multiple losses against bad teams.