Pitt men’s basketball is not getting fair credit as the 18th ranked team in the country. With their record being 18-3 overall and 6-2 in the ACC, which is one of the best basketball conferences in the country, they should be ranked higher.
Not only are they winning in the ACC, they are dominating. For example, they beat their Clemson by a score of 76-43.
Pitt also shows they can defend their house and play their style of basketball with hard-nosed defense anchored by Talib Zanna and scoring productively with Lamar Patterson, who is one of the front runners for ACC Player of the Year, averaging above 17 points per game.
Not to mention, some of the teams ahead of them in the polls are inferior to Pitt. Wisconsin (#14) lost to unranked rivals Indiana and Michigan. ACC rival Duke whose defense has been lackluster, but are offensive scoring machines with Jabari Parker, is ranked just ahead of Pitt.
Also, Pitt has beaten pretty impressive opponents. They beat Stanford by twenty points, and Stanford beat UConn when they were 10th in the country. They demolished Clemson by a substantial margin and Clemson was second in the ACC before that game, and Clemson beat Duke (#17), who is ahead of Pitt in the rankings. Pitt also beat Wake Forest by fifteen, and Wake Forest beat UNC while they were ranked. Clearly, Pitt did not have a cake walk of a schedule as people thought.
Therefore, Pitt should be ranked higher and are not getting their fair credit. Even though the two losses have affected them the most, they beat opponents who are better than first thought.
Pitt should definitely be ranked in the top 15 if not the top 10, as they have certainly proved they are worthy of a better spot.