Pittsburgh Basketball ranked in top 25 for first time in over 2,550 days

A lot had to go right for Pittsburgh Basketball to find itself in the top-25 this season but somehow, the Panthers made it before the end of the year.

It’s been a rough time for Pittsburgh Basketball ever since longtime head coach Jamie Dixon left to go to TCU after the 2015-16 season. That was the last time the Panthers were nationally relevant, as the Kevin Stallings era was a complete disaster in two years, with things going fairly slowly under his replacement, Jeff Capel.

There was a glimmer of hope entering this season that things would improve but the preseason went horribly for the team. John Hugley, last year’s leading scorer and rebounder, went down with a knee injury that would eventually limit him to just eight games and not have an impact this year. And Dior Johnson, Pittsburgh’s prized freshman recruit, has been out for the season after an offseason arrest.

After starting out the year 1-3, including 25+ point losses to both West Virginia and Michigan, the hope was simply that they wouldn’t finish in the bottom-3 of the ACC. But the stretch of back-to-back wins against North Carolina and Virginia had them at the top of the league and with a chance of an NCAA Tournament. Since, then the Panthers have simply kept winning, with a pair of wins this past week against Georgia Tech and Syracuse vaulting them to sole possession of first place in the conference standings.

Pittsburgh Basketball has accomplished almost everything it could’ve dreamed of, assuming they indeed are heading to the NCAA Tournament. But the one thing that has alluded them a couple of times is getting in the top-25 of the AP poll rankings. In fact, it was around this time seven years ago when they were last ranked, No. 23 before a 13-point loss at Clemson took them out of it.

That’s now been handled, as the Panthers have climbed into the group after being left out in the past month. After losing at Virginia nine days ago, it looked like that wouldn’t have been in the cards for them. Instead, they got some luck with many ranked programs losing last week and the 99-point effort against the Orange certainly was a nice way to get attention.

A lot of luck went into finally getting ranked, including the newcomers all having a major impact. JUCO transfer Federiko Federiko has been a gold find, replacing Hugley at the center position. Leading scorer Blake Hinson has been one of the best players in the ACC, while Nelly Cummings and Greg Elliott have solidified the backcourt.

It’s been seven years since the program was ranked. They’ve now ended the long drought. Next up is the NCAA Tournament, with Selection Sunday less than two weeks away. If they keep playing like a top-25 team, the Panthers won’t have any concerns about ending that drought either.