This time last September, as he was preparing for his first season as Pitt’s men’s basketball coach, Kevin Stallings described his team’s ACC schedule as “almost comically difficult.”
This year, the task at hand doesn’t get much easier.
A four-game stretch in which it plays, in order, Miami, Louisville, Virginia Tech and Duke highlights a predictably difficult 2017-18 conference schedule for Pitt, a slate of games that was released by the league Thursday.
Of its 18 games against ACC teams, a combined eight come against Louisville, Duke, Miami and Syracuse, the first three of which have been pegged by many outlets as preseason top-15 teams. The Panthers play Louisville and Syracuse twice every season as the two programs, both former members of the Big East, are Pitt’s designated conference rivals.
Pitt’s Jan. 2 matchup at Louisville is notable because it is currently set to happen without Cardinals coach Rick Pitino, who was suspended by the NCAA for the first five games of the conference season as punishment for one of his former staff member arranging sexual activities for players and recruits.
The schedule, which opens with a Dec. 30 home contest against Miami at 4 p.m., also includes a Feb. 3 game at North Carolina, when the Panthers will face off against former Pitt guard Cameron Johnson. An Our Lady of the Sacred Heart graduate, Johnson joined the Tar Heels as a graduate transfer this summer following a drawn-out and occasionally messy process in which Pitt originally blocked his transfer to an intra-conference school before ultimately relenting.
The Panthers have no more than three consecutive games on the road and two consecutive games at home. The opponents scheduled to come to the Petersen Events Center this season, in addition to the aforementioned four repeat opponents, are Georgia Tech (Jan. 13), N.C. State (Jan. 24), Boston College (Feb. 13), Wake Forest (Feb. 21) and Virginia (Feb. 24). The schedule concludes with a Feb. 28 game at Notre Dame, which comes nearly one full week before the start of the ACC tournament in Brooklyn.
Those games come in addition to a 13-game non-conference run that features matchups against traditional foes Penn State (Nov. 20 in Brooklyn), Duquesne (Dec. 1 at PPG Paints Arena) and West Virginia (Dec. 9 at the Petersen Events Center).
Each of Pitt’s 18 ACC games will be televised, with six of them appearing on either ESPNU or ESPN2.
For the Panthers, the challenge of competing in what is arguably the top conference in college basketball annually will fall on an entirely remade roster. Following the graduation of four seniors – two of whom, Michael Young and Jamel Artis, averaged a combined 37.8 points per game last season – the transfer of five players and the dismissal of another, Pitt brings in 11 new additions to the roster. Of that group, nine will be first-year Division I players (seven freshmen and two junior-college transfers).
Pitt’s full ACC schedule is listed below:
Time, date — Opponent — TV
4 p.m. Dec. 30 — Miami — ACC Network
9 p.m. Jan. 2 — at Louisville — ESPNU
Noon Jan. 6 — at Virginia Tech — ACC Network
7 p.m. Jan. 10 — Duke — ESPN2
2 p.m. Jan. 13 — Georgia Tech — ACC Network
9 p.m. Jan. 16 — at Syracuse — AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh
4 p.m. Jan. 20 — at Duke — ACC Network
9 p.m. Jan. 24 — N.C. State — AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh
4 p.m. Jan. 27 — Syracuse — ACC Network
7 p.m. Jan. 31 — at Miami — AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh
8 p.m. Feb. 3 — at North Carolina — ACC Network
7 p.m. Feb. 8 — at Clemson — AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh
1 p.m. Feb. 11 — Louisville — ACC Network
7 p.m. Feb. 13 — Boston College — ESPNU
6 p.m. Feb. 18 — at Florida State — ESPNU
9 p.m. Feb. 21 — Wake Forest — AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh
4 p.m. Feb. 24 — Virginia — ESPNU
7 p.m. Feb. 28 — at Notre Dame — ESPNU
First Published: September 7, 2017, 7:41 p.m.
