Jon Rothstein, Andy Katz Rank Pitt in Top 25

Two national writers have the Pitt Panthers ranked among the best in college basketball.

PITTSBURGH -- The Pitt Panthers continue to climb up national rankings while riding a five-game win streak and rising to the top of the ACC standings. For the first time this season, the Panthers appeared in the top 25 of two national college basketball analysts' rankings this week.

CBS Sports' Jon Rothestein's latest Rothstein 45 rankings had the Panthers at 24th, up two spots from where they were last week. Andy Katz of Turner Sports also had Pitt at No. 24 in his Power 36 rankings, but that is a three-spot deterioration from last week's No. 21 ranking. 

The Athletic's Seth Davis left Pitt on the outside of his top-25 ballot, which he submitted to the Associated Press, but they just barely missed the cut. That said, Davis feels the Panthers are more deserving of a spot in the poll than NC State, who was ranked last week. 

"While I did not rank Pitt or NC State, if I had to pick one of those two, Pitt would have been the easy choice," Davis wrote. "The Wolfpack have slightly better metrics, but the Panthers are tied for first and are two games ahead of NC State in the ACC standings, and they beat the Wolfpack in Raleigh. They also have a home win over Virginia, a road win at North Carolina, and a road win at Northwestern that looks a lot better today than it did two days ago. NC State’s wins are not of the same caliber. Yet, somehow NC State was No. 22 in last week’s AP poll while the Panthers were unranked. If nothing else, Pitt should be a no-brainer choice to be ahead of NC State on your pollster’s depth chart."

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