Sept. 7, 2006

2006-07 Pitt Men's Basketball Schedule (pdf)

PITTSBURGH--The University of Pittsburgh released its entire 31-game 2006-07 men's basketball schedule on Thursday. Pitt will play a school record 15 national television games and host 18 contests at the Petersen Events Center.

Overall, Pitt will play 12 games against opponents who advanced to NCAA Tournament play in 2005-06, 18 contests against teams advancing to either the NCAA Tournament or NIT last year, 14 games against teams that won 20-plus games in 2005-06 and 17 games against opponents that won at least 18-plus games last year.

"This will be the most challenging overall schedule we will play in my eight years here," Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon said. "The Big East will again pose a tremendous challenge. I'm excited about our non-conference schedule as well. Last year our strength of schedule was ranked 30^th out of 327 teams in the country. We have put ourselves in a position to have one of the toughest, if not the toughest overall schedule in the country."

Pitt will play a 16-game Big East Conference schedule and will face 13 of the 15 schools, including three of those schools on a home-and-home basis. Pitt's three repeat opponents include Georgetown, Marquette and West Virginia. The Panthers will not face Notre Dame and Rutgers during the regular season. Per usual, the Panthers will play eight home games and eight away contests. Home Big East opponents at the Petersen Events Center include Connecticut (Jan. 16), Georgetown (Jan. 13), Louisville (Feb. 12), Marquette (Jan. 21), Providence (Feb. 10), St. John's (Jan. 27), USF (Jan. 7) and West Virginia (Feb. 27). The Panthers' 2006-07 road opponents include Cincinnati (Jan. 24), DePaul (Jan. 10), Georgetown (Feb. 24), Marquette (March 3), Seton Hall (Feb. 19), Syracuse (Jan. 4), Villanova (Jan. 29) and West Virginia (Feb. 7).

Highlighting the 2006-07 non-conference schedule are road contests against Auburn (Dec. 3), Buffalo (Dec. 9), Wisconsin (Dec. 16) and Oklahoma State (Dec. 21) along with a home game against Washington (Feb. 17). Pitt will play four games as part of the Colonial Classic at the Petersen Events. The classic will feature four teams: Northeastern (Nov. 17), Massachusetts (Nov. 18), Oakland (Nov. 19) and Florida State (Nov. 24). Pitt's home opener is set for Tuesday, Nov. 14 against 2006 NIT participant Delaware State. Pitt will also host home games against Robert Morris (Nov. 29), Duquesne (Dec. 6), Dayton (Dec. 23) and Florida A&M (Dec. 30).

Pitt opens its season on Sunday, Nov. 12 against Western Michigan as part of the Maggie Dixon Classic to be hosted at the United States Military Academy. Following the Pitt-Western Michigan men's game, the Army women's team will host Ohio State in the second contest. Both games will be televised on ESPN-U. The Maggie Dixon Memorial Classic is being held in honor of the late Maggie Dixon, who passed away in April.

ESPN College Basketball Game Day will make its first ever appearance in Pittsburgh prior to the Georgetown game on Saturday, Jan. 13. ESPN will broadcast GameDay live from the Petersen Events Center floor at 11 a.m. Traditional hosts of ESPN College Basketball GameDay include Rece Davis, Digger Phelps, Dick Vitale, Jay Bilas and Andy Katz. The Pitt women's team will host St. John's at a time to be determined. Tipoff for the Georgetown-Pitt men's game is at 9 p.m. More information will be released at a later date.

Pitt will host two exhibition contests against Carnegie Mellon on Nov. 1 and California (Pa.) on Nov. 4. NCAA rules only permit exhibition contests against NCAA Division II and III schools as well as NAIA programs. The Panthers take advantage of this policy to play Pennsylvania. Last year Pitt hosted Slippery Rock and Indiana (Pa.).

Pitt returns eight of its top 10 players from a squad that finished 25-8 overall and 10-6 in Big East play, advanced to the Big East Championship final for the fifth time in the last six seasons and appeared in a school record fifth straight NCAA Tournament.

The Big East Championship is scheduled for March 7-10 at New York City's Madison Square Garden while the NCAA Tournament begins March 15-18 at eight different venues. NCAA Regionals are March 22-25 while the NCAA Final Four is March 31-April 2 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

For ticket information, please contact the Pitt Ticket Office at (800) 643-PITT or (412) 648-PITT.

PITT'S 2006-07 MEN'S BASKETBALL SCHEDULE FACTS

National TV games: 15 (ESPN Regional has yet to release its programming schedule)

Total games vs. 2005-06 NCAA Tournament teams: 12

Total games vs. 2005-06 teams advancing to postseason play: 18

Big East games vs. 2005-06 NCAA Tournament teams: 10 of 16

Big East games vs. 2005-06 teams advancing to postseason play: 12 of 16

Away games vs. 2005-06 teams advancing to postseason play: 9 of 12

Total games: 31 (Home games: 18, Away games: 12, Neutral games: 1)

2006-07 PITT MEN'S BASKETBALL SCHEDULE

(as of September 7, 2006)

                                                (Maggie Dixon Classic, Christl Arena)

                                                Colonial Classic (Pittsburgh, Pa./Petersen Events Center)

                                                All-College Classic (Oklahoma City, Okla., Ford Center)

Saturday, Dec. 23	DAYTON	Petersen Events Center	TBA
Saturday, Dec. 30	FLORIDA A&M	Petersen Events Center	7:30 p.m.
Thursday, Jan. 4	at *Syracuse (ESPN)	Syracuse, N.Y.	7 p.m.
Sunday, Jan. 7	*USF	Petersen Events Center	TBA
Wednesday, Jan. 10	at *DePaul (ESPN2)	Chicago, Ill.	7 p.m.
Saturday, Jan. 13	*GEORGETOWN (ESPN)	Petersen Events Center	9 p.m.
Tuesday, Jan. 16	*CONNECTICUT (ESPN2)	Petersen Events Center	7 p.m.
Sunday, Jan. 21	*MARQUETTE (CBS)	Petersen Events Center	TBA
Wednesday, Jan. 24	at *Cincinnati	Cincinnati, Ohio	TBA
Saturday, Jan. 27	*ST. JOHN'S	Petersen Events Center	TBA
Monday, Jan. 29	at *Villanova (ESPN)	TBA	7 p.m.
Wednesday, Feb. 7	at *West Virginia	Morgantown, W.Va.	TBA
Saturday, Feb. 10	*PROVIDENCE (ESPN)	Petersen Events Center	6 p.m.
Monday, Feb. 12	*LOUISVILLE (ESPN)	Petersen Events Center	7 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 17	WASHINGTON (ESPN)	Petersen Events Center	2 p.m.
Monday, Feb. 19	at *Seton Hall	East Rutherford, N.J.	7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 24	at *Georgetown (CBS)	Washington, D.C.	2 p.m.
Tuesday, Feb. 27	*WEST VIRGINIA (ESPN2)	Petersen Events Center	7 p.m.
Saturday, March 3	at *Marquette (ESPN)	Milwaukee, Wis.	9 p.m.
Wed.-Sat., March 7-10	at Big East Championship (ESPN)	New York, N.Y.	TBA
March 15-18	NCAA First & Second Rounds	TBA	TBA
March 22-25	NCAA Regionals	TBA	TBA
March 31-April 2	NCAA Final Four	Atlanta, Ga.

 

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