The ninth-seeded Panthers are off to Boise, Idaho, to take on eighth-seeded University of the… The ninth-seeded Panthers are off to Boise, Idaho, to take on eighth-seeded University of the Pacific.

“We’re going to pack in the station wagon,” head coach Jamie Dixon said, with a smile after Pitt’s seeding was revealed on CBS’s selection show last night.

He was joking about the means of travel, but there is no joke on where the Panthers (20-8) were placed in the field of 65.

“We deserve what we got,” senior forward Chevon Troutman said of his team, which is 5-5 in its last 10 games.

The poor late-season play earned Pitt a trip to a place that is, for the most part, unfamiliar to all the Panthers, making a road atlas as important as a Pacific scouting report.

“I have no idea where it’s at,” Troutman said with a big smile. “I’m completely clueless right now.”

Dixon, however, has been to Boise several times before, including a trip for a tournament game against Cincinnati when he was an assistant coach at Northern Arizona.

“I think it’s a great place,” he said. “I’m very familiar.”

As great of a place as it may be, the bracket does not set up an easy road back to the Sweet 16 for Pitt, with a first round date against Pacific (26-3) and a potential second-round matchup against the No. 1-seeded Washington Huskies (26-5), which defeated Arizona in the Pac-10 Championship Saturday. But the Panthers are just happy to be in the tournament and they are ready to play any team.

“Aw man, that’s the best,” Krauser said. “I’m ready to play whoever, number one, number zero, negative five, we’re ready to roll.”

The rolling starts Thursday at the Boise State University Pavilion. The time will be announced later today.

Also in the Albuquerque Region is fourth-seed and future Big East member Louisville, which could be a potential Sweet 16 matchup for Pitt. Additionally, West Virginia landed the seventh seed in Pitt’s region, but could only play the Panthers if both teams managed to reach the Elite 8.