A Pitt team hoping to show it can take the next step in the ACC will get its first chance to prove it can do that away from any of the arenas in which it will be competing during the 2019-20 season — far, far away.
Heading into their second season under head coach Jeff Capel, the Panthers will embark on a nine-day foreign tour in Italy from Aug. 5-14.
The NCAA allows a program to take such a tour no more than once every four years. Pitt hasn't gone on a foreign tour since 2014, when it went to the Bahamas under then-head coach Jamie Dixon.
Under NCAA rules, on a foreign tour, a team is given a maximum 10 practices and exhibition games. The Panthers' itinerary and opponents have not yet been revealed. News of the tour was first reported by Stadium’s Jeff Goodman.
Though it will come overseas, it will be the closest thing to a public reveal of a young, still-improving team. Pitt brings back its backcourt of Xavier Johnson and Trey McGowens, who averaged 15.5 and 11.6 points per game, respectively, last season as freshmen, with Johnson earning first-team all-freshman honors in the ACC. Guard/forward Au'Diese Toney, who averaged 7.5 points and a team-high 5.6 rebounds per game as a freshman, also returns, as do forwards Terrell Brown and Kene Chukwuka, the latter of whom is recovering from an offseason hip procedure.
The team's roster is still fluid, as it has four open scholarships, meaning the exact group that will be heading to Italy remains a mystery.
Craig Meyer: cmeyer@post-gazette.com and Twitter @CraigMeyerPG
First Published: May 6, 2019, 8:01 p.m.