For a third-straight year, Pitt was predicted to finish outside of the top five in the ACC, despite finishing within the top five for each of the past two seasons.
The Panthers were picked to finish seventh in the league’s preseason poll that came out Tuesday. Check out the poll here.
The Panthers have been predicted to finish all over the place in different ACC projections so far. CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein picked the Panthers to finish eighth in the league. The Panthers have the 11th-best odds to win the league according to DraftKings. Evan Miyakawa has Pitt as the No. 5 team in the ACC in his preseason rankings. Pitt was recently selected as the No. 4 team in the ACC in Ken Pomeroy’s preseason rankings — which seem to be the highest on the Panthers so far.
Pomeroy’s ratings are almost always a topic of conversation throughout the basketball season along with the NCAA’s NET rankings. On Monday, Pomeroy released his preseason ratings.
Pitt came in at No. 38 in the country and No. 4 in the ACC.
This is how the ACC stacks up in his rankings.
1. Duke (No. 2 overall)
2. North Carolina (No. 14 overall)
3. Clemson (No. 24 overall)
4. Pitt (No. 38 overall)
5. Wake Forest (No. 44 overall)
6. NC State (No. 52 overall)
7. Miami (No. 55 overall)
8. Louisville (No. 64 overall)
9. Syracuse (No. 68 overall)
10. Notre Dame (No. 69 overall)
11. Georgia Tech (No. 70 overall)
12. SMU (No. 74 overall)
13. Virginia (No. 78 overall)
14. Florida State (No. 90 overall)
15. Virginia Tech (No. 92 overall)
16. Stanford (No. 99 overall)
17. Boston College (No. 113 overall)
18. Cal (No. 135 overall)
Pomeroy’s system has Pitt’s offensive rating ranked No. 32 overall and its defensive rating No. 50 overall.
See Pomeroy’s full rankings here.
Pitt is looking to earn its third-straight 20-win season under Capel. The Panthers return Lowe, Ishmael Leggett, Zack Austin, and the Diaz Graham twins, among others, while also bringing in Corhen, Damian Dunn, Amsal Delalic, Brandin Cummings, and Amdy Ndiaye.
Another useless article.
For me, not having seen this team play together, I’m ok with 7th as a prediction today. Wouldn’t surprise me to see them be #5 or #9. I’m looking at Duke, UNC, Wake, Clemson … and some others … and saying yeah, it could be tough to get the W against those teams. Can’t wait to watch them. H2P !