Men’s Basketball: For first time this year, Panthers looking to rebound from Big East loss

Coming into Big East play, everyone looked to the culmination of the five-game stretch the… Coming into Big East play, everyone looked to the culmination of the five-game stretch the Panthers just finished as a defining point of the season.

Pitt went 4-1 in that stretch but Panther fans are about to see the sixth quality team in a row when they travel to play Seton Hall (10-6, 1-4 Big East) Sunday at 2 p.m.

Don’t let the Pirates’ record fool you. They’re for real.

Seton Hall boasts the league’s second-leading scorer in Jeremy Hazell, who comes into the game averaging 23.3 points per game. The team also has the Big East’s leading rebounder in sophomore Herb Pope.

Pope is averaging 11.5 rebounds per game for the Pirates, but he was very close to playing for Pitt.

An Aliquippa native, Pope verbally committed to Pitt after his sophomore season but his circumstances quickly changed when he was shot at a high school party and decided to go far away to school. He chose New Mexico State, but after coach Reggie Theus left for a coaching job in the NBA, Pope decided to transfer to Seton Hall.

The Panthers (15-3, 5-1 Big East) will need to bounce back and play better defensively against Seton Hall than they did against Georgetown because the Pirates can score in bunches. In fact, they won against the Virginia Military Institute Dec. 12 with 134 points, the highest point total in Seton Hall’s 105-year history.

But no one has to tell the Panthers’ players what it will take to straighten things out after a tough loss.

“I think we’re going to bounce back well in practice,” forward Gilbert Brown said. “We have to work harder. It’s as simple as that.”

The Panthers will look for sophomore guard Ashton Gibbs to get back on the right track against Seton Hall after going 3-16 from the field in the loss to Georgetown. In fact, a lot of the Panthers can have a bounce back game on offense against the Pirates.

While Seton Hall is the highest scoring team in the Big East with 84.7 points per game, it is also giving up the second most points per game with 74. Comparatively, Pitt gives up 59.1 points per game.

But not only will the Panthers benefit from playing one of the worst defensive teams in the league, they’re also looking to avenge their first loss in conference play.

“One loss doesn’t mean anything,” guard Jermaine Dixon said. “We were looking forward to going undefeated [in the Big East] but everyone’s good in this conference, you don’t have a night off. We’re going to take it out on Seton Hall.”