A closer look…

The Teams: College Game Day comes to town tomorrow as the Pitt Panthers (15-2 overall,… The Teams: College Game Day comes to town tomorrow as the Pitt Panthers (15-2 overall, 3-0 Big East) welcome the Georgetown Hoyas (11-4,1-1) to the Petersen Events Center in a matchup of the two early season Big East favorites. Tip-off is set for 9 p.m.

Coverage: The game will be nationally telecast by ESPN. FM News Talk 94.5 FM and 970 AM will each have the radio call. SIRIUS Satellite Radio will also have the action with a channel still to be determined. The channel will be made available on SIRIUS’ Web site.

Big Expectations: The preseason Big East Coach’s Poll picked Pitt and Georgetown to finish No. 1 and No. 2, respectively. The Hoyas, once ranked inside the top 10, lost a few surprising home games, though, and have fallen just outside of the rankings.

It’s Not Easy Being Green: Junior Jeff Green figures to be a real matchup nightmare for the Panthers. He scored 22 points to pace the Hoyas’ 61-58 win over Pitt last February. His numbers this year, though, are slightly down at 11.6 points and 6.2 rebounds a night. In the team’s four losses, Green has failed to reach double figures.

Snapped: Levance Fields scored eight points Wednesday night, ending a string of seven consecutive games scoring in double figures. The sophomore point guard followed up a career-high 24 points in last week’s win over Syracuse with a team-high 11 in Sunday’s win over South Florida.

Getting Defensive: After Oklahoma State racked up 95 points on Pitt back on Dec. 21, Pitt has gotten serious about its defense. In the Panthers’ five consecutive wins, only Syracuse cracked the 60-point barrier. Further, Pitt held both South Florida and DePaul to less than 50 points -the first two opponents the Panthers have done that against this season.

Deep Blue: The Hoyas are one of the few teams in the conference that can match the Panthers’ depth. Six Hoyas average more than 20 minutes a game while three others average at least 11. Patrick Ewing Jr., the son of Georgetown and NBA legend Patrick Ewing, even averages 9.7 minutes a game off the bench for this deep Georgetown squad.

Big Least: Georgetown is one of several Big East teams to lose its national ranking this season. Marquette ascended into the top 10 only to fall out after last week’s home loss to Syracuse. That same Orange squad once found itself inside the top 15, but Syracuse has since lost a few home games and Jim Boeheim’s squad is also without a rank. No. 22 Connecticut and No. 21 West Virginia could be next, given that both teams lost earlier this week. Those two teams, along with the No. 7 Panthers, are the only ranked teams in the conference.

Game Day Festivities: Pitt is rolling out the red carpet for the Game Day crew with festivities all day to hype the game. Doors to the Petersen Events Center will open at 8 a.m. tomorrow while free admission to ESPN College Game Day’s show will begin at 9:30 a.m. The show will begin at 11 a.m. and is followed by the women’s basketball game against St. John’s at 1:30 p.m. Andy Katz will host his three-hour ESPN Radio broadcast live in the Petersen Events Center lobby starting at noon. The doors will open for the Pitt-Georgetown game at 7:30 p.m.

– Geoff Dutelle