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Non-conference schedule announced

JD1976

Athletic Director
Jan 23, 2005
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PITT ANNOUNCES 2017-18 NON-CONFERENCE OPPONENTS & DATES
7/10/2017 12:00:00 PM
Non-Conference Schedule

PITTSBURGH –
The University of Pittsburgh men's basketball program announced its non-conference opponents and game dates Monday, highlighted by the 185th edition of the Backyard Brawl. The Panthers will play nine games at the Petersen Events Center, including the matchup with West Virginia (Dec. 9), as part of a 13-game non-conference slate.

Pitt opens the year at Navy (Nov. 10) in the Veterans Classic before hosting Montana (Nov. 13) and UC-Santa Barbara (Nov. 15) in the opening rounds of the Legends Classic. The Panthers will be joined at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn for the championship rounds of the event (Nov. 21-22) by Penn State, Oklahoma State and Texas A&M.

Following the Thanksgiving holiday, Pitt hosts Lehigh (Nov. 25) and High Point (Nov. 28) before the annual City Game with Duquesne, Friday, Dec. 1. The Panthers are back in action at the Pete against 2017 NCAA Tournament qualifier Mount St. Mary's (Dec. 5) before hosting West Virginia in the marquee game of the non-conference lineup.

Pitt concludes non-league play against McNeese State (Dec. 16), Delaware State (Dec. 19) and Towson (Dec. 22) with conference play slated to begin Saturday, Dec. 30.

Game times and TV designations for the non-conference schedule will be announced at a later date.

Dates for Pitt's ACC schedule, which features home games with ESPN Top-25 foes Duke, Louisville, Miami and Virginia, are expected to be announced in late August. The Panthers will also host Syracuse, Georgia Tech, Wake Forest, NC State and Boston College in league play.

Season tickets for the 2017-18 season are on sale now! Great lower level locations are available and can be reserved by calling the Panthers Ticket Office at 800-643-7488 or by clicking HERE.

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Alright, let's break this down a little bit then with some snap judgments that will totally be proven wrong in one way or another.

@Navy - Bit of a coin flip game but I'm going to say a 60/40 loss on the road against an experienced team that plays good defense and is well coached. Navy forces a lot of on ball turnovers and with such an inexperienced backcourt I can see this one really getting away from us. (0-1)

Montana - No real size, always play poorly away from home and against power conference schools. Likely win. (1-1)

UCSB - Good program that's fallen on real hard times, tough to see what their roster even looks like this year so also a likely win. Wouldn't be surprised if Bob Williams pulled a good team together and beat us either though. (2-1)

Legends Classic - Likely an 0-2 trip but wouldn't be surprised if we shocked Oklahoma State who is in a total rebuild if we draw them. A&M would completely murder us and Penn State has a lot more experience and size than we do. (2-3)

Lehigh - Really good, experienced opponent that can shoot the basketball. Thankfully Tim Kempton is finally gone so that makes this a probable win. I hope. (3-3)

High Point - Really underachieved last year and lost most of their decent players. Win. (4-3)

Duquesne - Duquesne is going to be an issue next year once their transfers become eligible but right now they're pretty thin and losing Mike and Saunders really hurts them making this a winnable game for us. I still have a hunch though that either Lewis or Castro gets hot and we lose again though. (4-4)

Mount St. Mary's - Yes, they played Villanova tough last March but they lost a ton of key parts to transfer and really weren't much of a threat in last year's OOC. A very short team that we can actually handle inside, just keep Junior Robinson in check and we'll be fine. Likely win. (5-4)

West Virginia - Next. (5-5)

McNeese State - Just a bad team that does nothing well and a program that doesn't really care about basketball. (6-5)

Delaware State - Here's your MEAC school of the year, could be an issue because they return most of the team that beat St John's last year, they have some size and Devin Morgan is a nice college basketball player. Still should win. (7-5)

Towson - Hey, it's our old buddy Pat Skerry! Skerry has turned Towson into a regular Colonial contender and they should be right at the top with UNCW and Charleston again this year since they return wing Mike Morsell, one of the best players that we will see OOC. Really don't see how that we win this one unless the team has really come together. (7-6)

Final OOC verdict: 7-6

Really there are a lot fewer coinflip games than I expected there to be as there really seem to be anywhere between 5 and 6 no contest wins on this schedule. As long as we don't trip up against someone like UCSB or Delaware State we should be a minimum of over .500. That gives us room to overperform against the likes of Navy, Lehigh and Towson and maybe, in a perfect world, get into conference play with 10 wins. Which is better than I otherwise might have hoped.
 
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7-6 is totally unacceptable. Anything worse than 10-3, in fact, is unacceptable.

If that bad they won't even be worth watching; and certainly not in ACC games.

No excuse for a coach being paid what he is being paid to not field a team that can finish 0.500 overall in season #2. This isn't football where the annual recruiting numbers limits means it takes 3-4 years to rebuild.

A quality coaching hire is at least ~0.500 in year #2 and at least NIT level in year 3, irrespective of the starting point.
 
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Alright, let's break this down a little bit then with some snap judgments that will totally be proven wrong in one way or another.

@Navy - Bit of a coin flip game but I'm going to say a 60/40 loss on the road against an experienced team that plays good defense and is well coached. Navy forces a lot of on ball turnovers and with such an inexperienced backcourt I can see this one really getting away from us. (0-1)

Montana - No real size, always play poorly away from home and against power conference schools. Likely win. (1-1)

UCSB - Good program that's fallen on real hard times, tough to see what their roster even looks like this year so also a likely win. Wouldn't be surprised if Bob Williams pulled a good team together and beat us either though. (2-1)
.

Bob Williams was canned after last season. Joe Pasternack is coming over from Arizona to replace him.
 
7-6 is totally unacceptable. Anything worse than 10-3, in fact, is unacceptable.

If that bad they won't even be worth watching; and certainly not in ACC games.

No excuse for a coach being paid what he is being paid to not field a team that can finish 0.500 overall in season #2. This isn't football where the annual recruiting numbers limits means it takes 3-4 years to rebuild.

A quality coaching hire is at least ~0.500 in year #2 and at least NIT level in year 3, irrespective of the starting point.

We will go 0-3 in the P5 games, almost for certain. Going 10-0 in the rest for one of the youngest, most inexperienced teams.in college basketball is extremely unrealistic. If we go 10-0 in those games, Stallings may be a better coach than we thought.

7-3 in the non-P5 OOC games seems acceptable.

7-6, 0-18 should do it.
 
7-6 is totally unacceptable. Anything worse than 10-3, in fact, is unacceptable.

If that bad they won't even be worth watching; and certainly not in ACC games.

No excuse for a coach being paid what he is being paid to not field a team that can finish 0.500 overall in season #2. This isn't football where the annual recruiting numbers limits means it takes 3-4 years to rebuild.

A quality coaching hire is at least ~0.500 in year #2 and at least NIT level in year 3, irrespective of the starting point.
cc
Unacceptable in yrs past , but not now . Live in the present .
 
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Alright, let's break this down a little bit then with some snap judgments that will totally be proven wrong in one way or another.

@Navy - Bit of a coin flip game but I'm going to say a 60/40 loss on the road against an experienced team that plays good defense and is well coached. Navy forces a lot of on ball turnovers and with such an inexperienced backcourt I can see this one really getting away from us. (0-1)

Montana - No real size, always play poorly away from home and against power conference schools. Likely win. (1-1)

UCSB - Good program that's fallen on real hard times, tough to see what their roster even looks like this year so also a likely win. Wouldn't be surprised if Bob Williams pulled a good team together and beat us either though. (2-1)

Legends Classic - Likely an 0-2 trip but wouldn't be surprised if we shocked Oklahoma State who is in a total rebuild if we draw them. A&M would completely murder us and Penn State has a lot more experience and size than we do. (2-3)

Lehigh - Really good, experienced opponent that can shoot the basketball. Thankfully Tim Kempton is finally gone so that makes this a probable win. I hope. (3-3)

High Point - Really underachieved last year and lost most of their decent players. Win. (4-3)

Duquesne - Duquesne is going to be an issue next year once their transfers become eligible but right now they're pretty thin and losing Mike and Saunders really hurts them making this a winnable game for us. I still have a hunch though that either Lewis or Castro gets hot and we lose again though. (4-4)

Mount St. Mary's - Yes, they played Villanova tough last March but they lost a ton of key parts to transfer and really weren't much of a threat in last year's OOC. A very short team that we can actually handle inside, just keep Junior Robinson in check and we'll be fine. Likely win. (5-4)

West Virginia - Next. (5-5)

McNeese State - Just a bad team that does nothing well and a program that doesn't really care about basketball. (6-5)

Delaware State - Here's your MEAC school of the year, could be an issue because they return most of the team that beat St John's last year, they have some size and Devin Morgan is a nice college basketball player. Still should win. (7-5)

Towson - Hey, it's our old buddy Pat Skerry! Skerry has turned Towson into a regular Colonial contender and they should be right at the top with UNCW and Charleston again this year since they return wing Mike Morsell, one of the best players that we will see OOC. Really don't see how that we win this one unless the team has really come together. (7-6)

Final OOC verdict: 7-6

Really there are a lot fewer coinflip games than I expected there to be as there really seem to be anywhere between 5 and 6 no contest wins on this schedule. As long as we don't trip up against someone like UCSB or Delaware State we should be a minimum of over .500. That gives us room to overperform against the likes of Navy, Lehigh and Towson and maybe, in a perfect world, get into conference play with 10 wins. Which is better than I otherwise might have hoped.
'

I don't have any significant, nor noteworthy, quibbles with your assessment.

Perhaps I'm only a tad more optimistic, if for no other reason other I'd just rather be a bit more hopeful.

I'll go with:

7 OOC wins -- 40% chance
8 OOC wins -- 30% chance
9 OOC wins -- 10%
10 OOC wins -- 10%
6 OOC wins -- 10%

I'd certainly like to think we can get 8 OOC wins, and somehow squeeze 2 wins out of conference, even if I don't see this likely. 10 wins total is certainly no major accomplishment, but in some small way, I think it matters just a bit to avoid a single digit win season.
 
It certainly is, isn't it.

The schedule isn't noticeably different from any of the worst OOC schedules of the last several years.

In fact, the only noticeable difference is that this year, no one outside of Pittsburgh will notice the level of this schedule. The reason our schedule ever got national notice was that we were typically shooting for an NCAA tournament seed.

In this case, it probably doesn't matter if we have a schedule where we will likely only win 3 OOC games, or only lose 3 OOC games.

I do wonder, however, how this would impact an opinion that a poor OOC conference schedule has some sort of impact on attendance.

Playing WVU is a good thing, and I hope it continues in the years going forward.

I certainly hope we don't lose to Duquesne two years in a row, as thirteenNINE is projecting.
 
The schedule isn't noticeably different from any of the worst OOC schedules of the last several years.

In fact, the only noticeable difference is that this year, no one outside of Pittsburgh will notice the level of this schedule. The reason our schedule ever got national notice was that we were typically shooting for an NCAA tournament seed.

In this case, it probably doesn't matter if we have a schedule where we will likely only win 3 OOC games, or only lose 3 OOC games.

I do wonder, however, how this would impact an opinion that a poor OOC conference schedule has some sort of impact on attendance.

Playing WVU is a good thing, and I hope it continues in the years going forward.

I certainly hope we don't lose to Duquesne two years in a row, as thirteenNINE is projecting.

I think there is a good chance we lose to Duquesne MORE than 2 years in a row.
 
The schedule isn't noticeably different from any of the worst OOC schedules of the last several years.


Sure it is. It isn't even close. I know this isn't a perfect way to do it because who knows where everyone will end up this upcoming season, but last season's schedule featured two nonconference games against teams with an end of season Pomeroy rating worse than 200:

Morehead State - 203
Duquesne - 224


This season's schedule has:

Navy - 206
UCSB - 331
High Point - 270
Mount St. Mary's - 209
Duquesne - 224
McNeese St - 316
Delaware State - 339

And that doesn't include Montana at 194. Which means that eight of the ten worst teams combined are on this coming year's schedule and only two were on last year's. The fact that people realistically think that we might only win seven or eight games against the collection of flotsam and jetsam that is on next year's schedule shows exactly how far this program has fallen. If one of our good teams played this schedule the question wouldn't be if we would win all eight of those games, it would be if more than one or two of them would keep the final margin of victory under 20 points.
 
Wait - I thought "upgrading" the OOC was a priority for Barnes and Stallings? All those on here who were howling at the moon over the OOC schedule the last 10 years can't be very happy.
 
Bob Williams was canned after last season. Joe Pasternack is coming over from Arizona to replace him.

That's unfortunate. Coach Williams recruited me when he was at Davis and two of my brothers at UCSB and he was always a stand-up guy and a good x's and o's coach. I know that he's in his 60s but it is sad to see him go out on what was always a rebuilding year where he lost his top three players to season ending injuries.
 
That's unfortunate. Coach Williams recruited me when he was at Davis and two of my brothers at UCSB and he was always a stand-up guy and a good x's and o's coach. I know that he's in his 60s but it is sad to see him go out on what was always a rebuilding year where he lost his top three players to season ending injuries.
How tall are you, and do you have any eligibility left? The same questions apply to your brothers.
 
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Sure it is. It isn't even close. I know this isn't a perfect way to do it because who knows where everyone will end up this upcoming season, but last season's schedule featured two nonconference games against teams with an end of season Pomeroy rating worse than 200:

Morehead State - 203
Duquesne - 224


This season's schedule has:

Navy - 206
UCSB - 331
High Point - 270
Mount St. Mary's - 209
Duquesne - 224
McNeese St - 316
Delaware State - 339

And that doesn't include Montana at 194. Which means that eight of the ten worst teams combined are on this coming year's schedule and only two were on last year's. The fact that people realistically think that we might only win seven or eight games against the collection of flotsam and jetsam that is on next year's schedule shows exactly how far this program has fallen. If one of our good teams played this schedule the question wouldn't be if we would win all eight of those games, it would be if more than one or two of them would keep the final margin of victory under 20 points.

Your point is well taken, but I was actually thinking about some of the schedules under Dixon (2011-2012 comes to mind). Also to your point, I suppose we should be "thankful" we don't have last year's schedule. Perhaps we should feel the same way about some of those schedules we had under Dixon that we always felt were substandard.

Nonetheless, it will indeed be a troubling result if we can't win at LEAST 7 games against this schedule. And even 7 is pretty troubling.
 
Your point is well taken, but I was actually thinking about some of the schedules under Dixon (2011-2012 comes to mind). Also to your point, I suppose we should be "thankful" we don't have last year's schedule. Perhaps we should feel the same way about some of those schedules we had under Dixon that we always felt were substandard.

Nonetheless, it will indeed be a troubling result if we can't win at LEAST 7 games against this schedule. And even 7 is pretty troubling.
If we only win seven, OUR RPI may be in the 200s.
 
A
This should be near the bottom of what not to be happy about.

Absolutely true. The OOC schedule should be the least of Pitt fan worries. Even when we had much better teams it was never my concern. I always have enjoyed blow out wins over "cupcakes" more than close losses to better teams--a lot easier on the nerves and stomach!
If we only win seven, OUR RPI may be in the 200s.

if we only win 7 (maybe 8 with 1 ACC upset win) overall we will have a much larger problem than just an awful W-L record. It will most likely mean--

(1) The new young players won't be developed properly as they were "thrown to the wolves."

(2) The entire team will be discouraged and probably will have stopped putting out effort by early in the ACC schedule. (Single digit win teams usually quit on themselves and their coaches).

(3) There will be a major negative perception effect on recruiting for the 2018-19 season as opposing coaches will use it against Stallings (final November 2017 LOI signed class better be a great one).

(4) Because of all of the above Stallings opportunity window to succeed will be closing fast if he doesn't have a somewhat decent double digit win season (say a 12-13 win floor) by March 2018. If not, there will be a high probability he will never have a winning season during his Pitt tenure. His last opportunity to succeed will then have shrunk to somehow getting his 2018-19 team to at least an NIT bid.
 
Wait - I thought "upgrading" the OOC was a priority for Barnes and Stallings? All those on here who were howling at the moon over the OOC schedule the last 10 years can't be very happy.
My complaint was always for the value that the fans were receiving for their money . With the quality of this Pitt team does whose on the schedule really going to matter ? Even worrying about the number of victories is imo a waste of energy .Go to the games to see if Pitts players develop not W's .
 
I do wonder, however, how this would impact an opinion that a poor OOC conference schedule has some sort of impact on attendance.

Playing WVU is a good thing, and I hope it continues in the years going forward.

I certainly hope we don't lose to Duquesne two years in a row, as thirteenNINE is projecting.

I will continue to point to "improving the schedule" by reviving the Brawl at the same time the program collapsed as the most tone deaf thing Barnes could have done. It is inexcusable to boast about a rivalry game when we're likely to lose by double digits in each game in the series. Awful.
 
I will continue to point to "improving the schedule" by reviving the Brawl at the same time the program collapsed as the most tone deaf thing Barnes could have done. It is inexcusable to boast about a rivalry game when we're likely to lose by double digits in each game in the series. Awful.

I understand your point.

I mean -- generally -- playing WVU is a good thing -- but it's going to be ugly for a while -- that's for sure.
 
I will continue to point to "improving the schedule" by reviving the Brawl at the same time the program collapsed as the most tone deaf thing Barnes could have done. It is inexcusable to boast about a rivalry game when we're likely to lose by double digits in each game in the series. Awful.

Actually, listening to a fanbase dissatisfied with the home OOC is anything but tone deaf. Resuming the rivalry with WVU is not a good thing, it's a great thing given the "quality" of the remaining schedule. Why are so many Pitt fans afraid of competition?
 
cc
Unacceptable in yrs past , but not now . Live in the present .

If the season proves as bad as forecasted in this thread I will find better things to do with my time next winter than watch such painful garbage.

For me, this is a season off. I'll watch the games from home, go to maybe half or so. No expectations, no nerves. I expect the worst season in Pitt history. Anything more than that and I will be delighted.
 
What type of OOC did everyone expect?

Some of you posters were having hissy fits that Pitt wouldn't be able to field a team, let alone have enough bodies to practice. Now you're bitching about an OOC schedule that isn't much different than 2012-2013.

I'm sure you'd all bitch if it was a difficult schedule too. Remember who took the over 10 wins when you were all crying about hopefully winning 5 games.
 
Alright, let's break this down a little bit then with some snap judgments that will totally be proven wrong in one way or another.

@Navy - Bit of a coin flip game but I'm going to say a 60/40 loss on the road against an experienced team that plays good defense and is well coached. Navy forces a lot of on ball turnovers and with such an inexperienced backcourt I can see this one really getting away from us. (0-1)

Montana - No real size, always play poorly away from home and against power conference schools. Likely win. (1-1)

UCSB - Good program that's fallen on real hard times, tough to see what their roster even looks like this year so also a likely win. Wouldn't be surprised if Bob Williams pulled a good team together and beat us either though. (2-1)

Legends Classic - Likely an 0-2 trip but wouldn't be surprised if we shocked Oklahoma State who is in a total rebuild if we draw them. A&M would completely murder us and Penn State has a lot more experience and size than we do. (2-3)

Lehigh - Really good, experienced opponent that can shoot the basketball. Thankfully Tim Kempton is finally gone so that makes this a probable win. I hope. (3-3)

High Point - Really underachieved last year and lost most of their decent players. Win. (4-3)

Duquesne - Duquesne is going to be an issue next year once their transfers become eligible but right now they're pretty thin and losing Mike and Saunders really hurts them making this a winnable game for us. I still have a hunch though that either Lewis or Castro gets hot and we lose again though. (4-4)

Mount St. Mary's - Yes, they played Villanova tough last March but they lost a ton of key parts to transfer and really weren't much of a threat in last year's OOC. A very short team that we can actually handle inside, just keep Junior Robinson in check and we'll be fine. Likely win. (5-4)

West Virginia - Next. (5-5)

McNeese State - Just a bad team that does nothing well and a program that doesn't really care about basketball. (6-5)

Delaware State - Here's your MEAC school of the year, could be an issue because they return most of the team that beat St John's last year, they have some size and Devin Morgan is a nice college basketball player. Still should win. (7-5)

Towson - Hey, it's our old buddy Pat Skerry! Skerry has turned Towson into a regular Colonial contender and they should be right at the top with UNCW and Charleston again this year since they return wing Mike Morsell, one of the best players that we will see OOC. Really don't see how that we win this one unless the team has really come together. (7-6)

Final OOC verdict: 7-6

Really there are a lot fewer coinflip games than I expected there to be as there really seem to be anywhere between 5 and 6 no contest wins on this schedule. As long as we don't trip up against someone like UCSB or Delaware State we should be a minimum of over .500. That gives us room to overperform against the likes of Navy, Lehigh and Towson and maybe, in a perfect world, get into conference play with 10 wins. Which is better than I otherwise might have hoped.

I think that's pretty accurate. 7-6 or 6-7 going into ACC play. But I think it will be a struggle to get to 10 total wins this year, let alone 10 wins OOC. I also don't see 3 or 4 wins in the ACC for us, unfortunately.
 
What type of OOC did everyone expect?

Some of you posters were having hissy fits that Pitt wouldn't be able to field a team, let alone have enough bodies to practice. Now you're bitching about an OOC schedule that isn't much different than 2012-2013.

I'm sure you'd all bitch if it was a difficult schedule too. Remember who took the over 10 wins when you were all crying about hopefully winning 5 games.
I think it was Barnes promising an improved OOC is what people are referring to. Of course, he's gone, so that's one more broken promise he left in his wake.
 
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Actually, listening to a fanbase dissatisfied with the home OOC is anything but tone deaf. Resuming the rivalry with WVU is not a good thing, it's a great thing given the "quality" of the remaining schedule. Why are so many Pitt fans afraid of competition?

Pitt is going to get chased off the floor by a heated rival. That's not competition, it's masochism.
 
What type of OOC did everyone expect?

Some of you posters were having hissy fits that Pitt wouldn't be able to field a team, let alone have enough bodies to practice. Now you're bitching about an OOC schedule that isn't much different than 2012-2013.

I'm sure you'd all bitch if it was a difficult schedule too. Remember who took the over 10 wins when you were all crying about hopefully winning 5 games.
I think it was Barnes promising an improved OOC is what people are referring to. Of course, he's gone, so that's one more broken promise he left in his wake.

Nobody knew our underclassmen were such bad players when that "promise" was made. Stalling had to start from scratch which will result in a miserable team this year so its totally stupid to schedule strong. In the future, if we ever improve, playing 1-2 OOC home and homes makes sense and will happen. Probably WVU and 1 more.
 
Nobody knew our underclassmen were such bad players when that "promise" was made. Stalling had to start from scratch which will result in a miserable team this year so its totally stupid to schedule strong. In the future, if we ever improve, playing 1-2 OOC home and homes makes sense and will happen. Probably WVU and 1 more.
I wasn't bitching, I was explaining the bitching.
 
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