Basketball gains, loses rivals

On Thursday, the Big East conference officially released basketball opponents for the… On Thursday, the Big East conference officially released basketball opponents for the 2005-2006 season. Although officials will not release dates and times until both are scheduled in September, they have announced which teams will face which opponents and where each game will take place.

This year features a new format. In this new system, Pitt will take on all but two of its potential Big East foes, and the Panthers will face Marquette, Providence and West Virginia twice next season. In all, the Panthers will face 13 of the other 15 teams in the expanded, 16-team conference, which is now the largest major conference in Division I basketball after the addition of five teams from Conference USA.

The 16-game schedule has Pitt slated to play eight games at home and eight on the road. The Panthers drew Cincinnati, DePaul, Marquette, Notre Dame, Providence, Seton Hall, Syracuse and West Virginia at the Petersen Events Center. Pitt will visit Georgetown, Louisville, Marquette, Providence, Rutgers, St. John’s, West Virginia, and Connecticut. Louisville and Connecticut are both defending regular-season conference champions. The Cardinals won Conference USA last year, while the Huskies tied Boston College for the best record in the Big East. Louisville also won the Conference USA post-season tournament.

Pitt will not face South Florida or Villanova during the regular season. The loss of Villanova will likely hurt the Panthers’ RPI as the Wildcats advanced to the Sweet 16 last year, falling to eventual champion North Carolina, 67-66, in one of the closest games of the tournament. They return all of their starters this year and are the preseason favorites to win the conference championship.

The rest of the Panthers’ schedule in the new Big East should be more than enough to compensate, however. Of the teams the Panthers will face, Louisville, West Virginia, UConn, Syracuse and Cincinnati were all in the NCAA tournament last spring. Notre Dame and Georgetown both received invitations to the National Invitational Tournament after just missing the field for the NCAA tourney.

Of these, Connecticut, Syracuse and Cincinnati all made early exits from the Big Dance. After winning the Big East tournament at Madison Square Garden, Syracuse drew the fourth seed in the Austin bracket only to be upset by Vermont in the opening round. Connecticut and Cincinnati both lost in the second round.

Louisville and West Virginia faced each other in the Elite Eight, where the Cardinals mounted a strong comeback to end the Mountaineers’ remarkable Cinderella run. After upsetting both Boston College and Villanova en route to the Big East tournament championship game — a run that secured their spot in the NCAA tournament — West Virginia won a double-overtime thriller against Wake Forest in the second round before defeating Bobby Knight’s Texas Tech squad in the Sweet Sixteen. The clock struck midnight when Louisville, which trailed nearly the entire game, wore down the Mountaineers in overtime, winning 93-85 and advancing to the Final Four. They fell to Illinois, 72-57, in the national semifinals in St. Louis.

Pitt will look for revenge against West Virginia this year after dropping two contests to the rival Mountaineers last season. West Virginia beat Pitt twice in February, winning 83-78 in Morgantown before beating the Panthers 70-66 in Pittsburgh later that month to sweep the Backyard Brawl.