The puzzle that is the 2020-21 Pitt men’s basketball schedule is nearly complete.
The Panthers will play Saint Francis (Pa.) on Nov. 25, Drexel on Nov. 28 and Gardner-Webb on Dec. 12, the school announced Friday. All of those non-conference matchups will take place at Petersen Events Center.
The Saint Francis contest will tip off at 7 p.m. and will air locally on AT&T SportsNet and nationally on the ACC’s regional sports networks. The times and television designations for the other two games have yet to be announced.
With the inclusion of those three games, Pitt is expected to have just one opening left on its schedule. It is already scheduled to play at Northwestern on Dec. 9 in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge, and earlier in the week, coach Jeff Capel said that his team will play 25 total games and will not be participating in a multi-team event, leaving it with five contests outside of ACC play.
The opener against Saint Francis comes on the first day college basketball teams are allowed to play games, as mandated by the NCAA. The Red Flash, only about eighty miles to the east in Loretto, Pa., are coming off a 22-10 finish in 2019-20 that saw it lose in the Northeast Conference (NEC) championship to Robert Morris. However, it lost its top two scorers from that squad to graduation, and on Thursday, it was picked to finish sixth in the 10-team NEC.
Drexel, on the other hand, returns four of its top five scorers from a group that went 14-19 last season. Earlier this week, the Dragons were picked to finish third in the 10-team Colonial Athletic Association, even receiving seven (of a possible 38) first-place votes.
On the heels of a 16-16 mark last season, Gardner-Webb was picked to finish fourth in the 11-team Big South Conference, despite having to replace its top three scorers.
None of the three teams are in the preseason top 200 of the KenPom.com rankings, with Drexel leading the trio at 203rd. Saint Francis is slotted 236th while Gardner-Webb is 249th (of 357 Division I teams).
Craig Meyer: cmeyer@post-gazette.com and Twitter @CraigMeyerPG
First Published: November 13, 2020, 7:59 p.m.
