Is Pitt basketball as good as ranking indicates

This is the year for Pitt basketball.

Sound familiar to anyone else? I know it must to… This is the year for Pitt basketball.

Sound familiar to anyone else? I know it must to head coach Jamie Dixon.

For the sixth straight season, the Panthers enter the season with the highest of expectations — competing for a national championship. It seems like a lofty goal, considering that Pitt has never made it past the third round of the NCAA Tournament.

Still, the expectation is a fair one. Pitt returns four starters and several other key players from last year’s 25-8 version that made it to the Big East Championship game. Thirteenth-seeded Bradley crashed the party, though, getting a strong inside game to bounce the Panthers from the tournament.

With the limelight turning up the heat on Dixon’s program, the pressure to get over the hump is at an all-time high. Nobody is questioning the talent of this Pitt team — Dixon’s bunch is picked to win the Big East this season — but its ability to hurdle the psychological roadblock keeping them in the Sweet 16.

So many questions — fortunately we have an entire season to get to them.

Is Pitt’s No. 2/3 ranking accurate?

Yes. Well, no. I think I’ll go ahead and say both on this one for a few reasons.

It is accurate in that Pitt has eaten the early schedule cupcakes on its schedule (Northeastern, Oakland) like it should. The teams in front of the Panthers, namely North Carolina, Kansas and Florida, have all already lost, so by the natural ascension process, Pitt should have moved up like it did. When you’re in the top five and you lose, you move down. Pitt beat the teams on its schedule, which is all it could do.

Now is Pitt better than all of the teams below it? No. Anybody who watched the Kansas-Florida game could see that both of those teams are better than Pitt right now. UCLA has proven it belongs in front of Pitt with some impressive wins, and North Carolina, while erratic, also has as much talent as any other team in the country.

What does this mean, then? Nothing. Preseason rankings are a joke. Butler went from unranked to 18th in a week. Georgetown is 18th in one poll and 23rd in another after starting out No. 9. There isn’t even a consensus No. 1. Ohio State is No. 1 in the ESPN/USA Today poll while UCLA tops the AP poll. Whether or not Pitt, or any other team, deserves its ranking won’t be an important question until January.

Does this Pitt team have what it takes to get to the Final Four?

Absolutely. This will make the fifth team in the last six years (save the 2004-05 team which had as much chemistry as the Oakland Raiders) that Pitt has the necessary tools to get to the Final Four. Pitt fans must be tired of hearing that by now.

Whether or not they will actually get there is another question, though.

The NCAA Tournament is the best thing in sports because a team’s success is contingent on two things — momentum and matchups. In Pitt’s three straight Sweet 16 appearances, the Panthers simply wound up with bad matchups. You don’t have to be better than a team to match up well with them — just look at the Pitt-Kent State matchup in 2002.

This team is well-equipped and presents a lot of matchup problems itself. Pitt is deep and big. Should the Panthers get on a roll and get favorable matchups, there’s no reason why they can’t get there.

What are Pitt’s biggest strengths and weaknesses?

Pitt’s strength is in ability to respond. If the Panthers need to go inside, then they have Levon Kendall and the preseason Big East Player of the Year in 7-footer Aaron Gray filling the lanes. Down by three with time winding down? Free up Ronald Ramon and his sweet stroke from the outside.

The Panthers have as many offensive weapons as they need and one for each occasion. Pitt’s biggest strength, though, is its unselfishness. The team averages 21.8 assists per game, including a jaw-dropping 28 assists on 35 field goals in last week’s 88-66 win over Florida State.

What might hold the Panthers back are turnovers, which is ironic considering how well the team passes the ball. Pitt has had 17 turnovers twice this season in wins over Western Michigan and Oakland. Granted, the win over the Broncos was the first game of the season, and the come-from-behind victory over Oakland was the team’s third game in as many days, but anything close to that number won’t cut it in conference play.

When this team settles down and values the ball like it knows how, the turnovers will stay down, the assists will go up and the wins will keep pouring in.

E-mail your questions about Pitt basketball to senior staff writer Geoff Dutelle at gmd8@pitt.edu, and they may appear in the next “Q ‘ A with Geoff Dutelle.”