Howland, Dixon alone at the top
PITTSBURGH — UCLA coach Ben Howland called Pitt coach Jamie Dixon and, naturally, the topic of which team would be No. 1 in the AP college basketball poll came up.
"He said, `Hey, you guys are going to be No. 1,' and I said, `No, you guys are going to be No. 1.' It just went back and forth like that," Dixon said Monday. "We joked about it and that was it."
Turns out Dixon was right.
UCLA, coached by Dixon's best friend and former boss, jumped from No. 5 last week to No. 1 after the Bruins won the Maui Invitational and last week's 1-2 teams, Florida and North Carolina, were beaten. UCLA had not been top-ranked since the final poll before the Bruins won their 11th and most recent NCAA title in 1995.
"It's UCLA — I may be mistaken, but I don't think it's their first time," Dixon said of the No. 1 ranking. "It's a newer thing for us."
Pitt, third a week ago, jumped to No. 2 but missed out on being top-ranked for the first time in school history. Not that Dixon seemed all that disappointed that his Panthers (6-0) won't have to deal with the added pressure and burden of being No. 1.
This is the seventh time Pitt has been ranked No. 2 and the first time since January 2003.
"It's good to be talking about it, but in no way should it be a disappointment we're No. 2 in the country," Dixon said. "We're working hard, and our guys weren't disappointed. They had business to take care of in practice and they handled it that way."
That Howland and Dixon are No. 1 and No. 2 is a reflection of how far Pitt's program and its last two coaches have advanced in a relatively short period of time.
Howland coached at Northern Arizona before taking Pitt off college basketball's scrap heap in 1999 and building it into a national program in only four seasons before leaving for UCLA after that 2002-03 season.
Dixon, his former assistant, has a 82-22 record at Pitt since replacing Howland.
"It says we're both at great schools, and we're very fortunate to be in the jobs we have," Dixon said of the coaches' rankings. "I think you could look at both of our practice plans and it's the same plan Jerry Pimm was drawing up at Cal-Santa Barbara when we were both assistants there. It probably all starts from there, especially our defensive fundamentals and philosophy.
"Most of all, it says we're both at great universities, and those things don't happen unless you're at a Pitt or a UCLA," he said.
Staying high in the polls will be a challenge for Pitt, which upgraded its non-conference schedule this season.
Previously, the Panthers rarely ventured outside of Pittsburgh before January, but they will have more road games (4) than home games (3) in December following Wednesday night's game against city opponent Robert Morris. Among the teams they will play on the road is No. 12 Wisconsin.
"If we're No. 1 at some point, people are going to be happy — why not, who doesn't want to be No. 1?" point guard Levance Fields said. "But if we're floating around the Top 5, the top 10, getting better as the year goes along, we'd rather have that than be No. 1."
Ronald Ramon, a junior guard, doesn't think the ranking will affect a team that returned eight of its top 10 players this season and is favored to win the Big East championship.
"We feel we're a team that can go out there and play against anybody," Ramon said.
