ACC announces 2020-21 women’s basketball schedule

Pitt men’s basketball finally received its long-anticipated conference schedule yesterday, and now the women’s team has its own. The Atlantic Coast Conference announced each team’s 20-game conference slate on Wednesday. This is two more than the team played last year. 

The ACC will conduct its women’s basketball season a little differently from the men’s. The conference has divided itself into three regional divisions. Teams will play each team in its division home and away, as well as five home and five away games against non-divisional opponents and two additional non-divisional games assigned by the conference office. Pitt’s region includes No. 5 Louisville, No. 22 Notre Dame, No. 23 Syracuse and Boston College.

The Panthers will open their ACC schedule at Virginia Tech on Dec. 10, before playing their conference home opener against Clemson on Dec. 13. The team will play home and aways against every team in its division as well as Virginia Tech. They’ll play Clemson twice, Miami, North Carolina and Virginia at home only, with Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, NC State and Wake Forest as road opponents. 

The Georgia Tech road game on Feb. 28 will conclude Pitt’s conference slate. The ACC tournament will be played at the Greensboro Coliseum, a tradition on the women’s side, from March 3 to March 7.

Pitt will host a limited capacity of fans for each home game this season, with all tickets offered on a single-game basis. Pitt will grant first priority of tickets to 2019-20 season ticket holders in order of Panther Club Priority Rank. All fans will be required to wear masks and abide by social distancing protocols. 

The Panthers return eight of their top nine scorers from last season, where they finished last in the ACC with a 1-17 conference record. ACC head coaches predicted Pitt to finish second-to-last this season, with Louisville in first and Virginia behind the Panthers. No players received acknowledgements in the preseason All-ACC team, nor in the newcomer watch list.