Pitt men’s hoops to play every Big East opponent in ’07

Big East basketball forgives few. And with a reputation as one of the nation’s toughest… Big East basketball forgives few. And with a reputation as one of the nation’s toughest conferences to defend, Big East commissioner Michael Tranghese expanded the conference schedule to 18 games.

A brutal, all-consuming conference schedule waits in the wings, and with Pitt’s addition of Duke to its out-of-conference schedule, the 2007-2008 season already appears to feature more fireworks than ever.

The Big East last played an 18-game schedule in the 1998-1999 season when the league had 13 members.

“We’re confident that this change in format will help improve the competitive balance in an already very deep league,” Tranghese said in a release.The league opted to continue its home-and-home series. As part of the series, the Big East tries to schedule at least one rivalry mirror for each school.

For the third consecutive season, Pitt and West Virginia will play two Backyard Brawls. The other two home-and-home series opponents for the Panthers will be Cincinnati and Villanova.

West Virginia graduated forward Frank Young, an All-Big East First Team member last season, and hired a new coach, former Cincinnati and Kansas State coach Bob Huggins, but expect nothing less than a slugfest between the two bitter rivals.

Huggins will change the Mountaineers into a more physical squad, implementing suffocating man-to-man defense and grind-it-out offense. This is a significant shift from the 1-3-1 zone defense and 3-point-obsessed offense that former coach John Beilein used to propel the Mountaineers to the top tier of Big East hoops, so expect to see some growing pains among the upperclassmen.

Villanova finished 22-11 last season, ending its season with a 67-58 loss to Kentucky in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The Wildcats return Big East Rookie of the Year Scottie Reynolds, a talented wing scorer, and developing forwards Shane Clark and Dante Cunningham.

And don’t forget the recruiting class. Guard Corey Fisher, a 6-foot scorer from the Bronx, and Corey Stokes, a lengthy 6-5 wing from Newark, N.J., will immediately contribute to coach Jay Wright’s promising young squad.

Cincinnati resumes its reconstruction following Huggins’ departure after the 2005 season. Coach Mick Cronin is finally starting to institute his brand of basketball in the Queen City. The extra matchup means not one, but two new chapters in the River City Rivalry.

But the home-and-home series make up six of Pitt’s 18 games. The Panthers’ other six home games feature Georgetown, Louisville, DePaul, Providence, Rutgers and Seton Hall. Georgetown and Louisville are preseason favorites to make deep runs in March.

Georgetown lost Big East Player of the Year Jeff Green, who was selected fifth in the 2007 NBA Draft. But coach John Thompson III added prized recruit Austin Freeman and one of the nation’s best recruiting classes to make up for the do-it-all forward’s departure.

The Hoyas also return nine of their top 10 contributors from last season’s Final Four team.

Louisville returns all but one of its top players. The Cardinals struggled through growing pains to start the 2006-2007 season but emerged in the Big East as a competitive and insanely athletic club.

Aside from the aforementioned trips to Cincinnati, West Virginia and Villanova, Pitt will travel to Connecticut, Marquette, Notre Dame, St. John’s, South Florida and Syracuse.

Connecticut returns every player on a roster many considered one of the top young groups in the nation. The Huskies struggled to a 17-14 finish, one of the worst under legendary coach Jim Calhoun, but with his players matured, the odds of another rough season are slim.

Marquette returns the three-headed monster – Dominic James, Wesley Matthews and Jerel McNeal – that beat Pitt twice during the regular season.

Notre Dame possesses one of the top point guards in the nation in Tory Jackson, a speedster who has yet to reach his full potential.

Syracuse, like most of the aforementioned programs, hauled in one of the top recruiting classes in the country. With several key players leaving, Jim Boeheim’s team will be oozing with youth and athleticism.

But Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon should have his squad ready to compete. The Panthers played the nation’s sixth-hardest schedule in the 2006-2007 season and finished 29-8.

“I think our schedule speaks for itself,” Dixon told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “If everything falls as I think it will, we’ll have the toughest schedule in the country this year.”

Pitt is also scheduled to finish its out-of-conference home-and-home series with Washington, Oklahoma State and Dayton, which were started last season.