Panthers head to Miami

The Pitt men’s basketball team will travel outside the city limits for the first time in… The Pitt men’s basketball team will travel outside the city limits for the first time in nearly two months when it plays at Miami on Saturday afternoon.

Coming off a 78-59 victory over Virginia Tech on Tuesday evening, the No. 15 Panthers look to improve their conference record to 2-0 while maintaining their unbeaten streak.

Against the Hokies, senior guards Jaron Brown and Julius Page led Pitt with 21 and 20 points, respectively. Freshman forward Chris Taft chipped in 17 points to help the Panthers improve their record to 15-0. Brown also played tough defense against Virginia Tech’s leading scorer Bryant Matthews, holding him to 22 points, two below his average.

“We knew [Matthews] was going to take a bunch of shots,” Brown said. “We just tried to get a hand in his face and contest his shots.”

Head coach Jamie Dixon praised Brown, who scored the 1,000th point of his career during the game, for his basketball sense and quickness.

“He has a knack for finding the ball,” Dixon said. “He’s a step ahead on defense.”

Brown may have a similar assignment on Saturday against the Miami Hurricanes’ Preseason Big East First Team selection Darius Rice. Rice enters the game on Saturday averaging just less than 18 points per contest. In a Jan. 3 win against Savannah State, Rice scored 25 points and was 8-for-8 from the charity stripe. However, in Wednesday’s loss to North Carolina, Rice managed only seven points.

Sophomore guard Robert Hite leads Miami in three-point percentage while averaging approximately 15 points per game. Against the Tar Heels, Hite scored a game-high 27 points to complement his six rebounds. North Carolina center Sean May scored 23 points in 28 minutes against the Hurricanes, perhaps indicating a weakness that can be exploited on Saturday by Pitt big men Taft, Chevon Troutman, and Toree Morris.

The Panthers enter Saturday’s game looking for their fifth consecutive road victory, dating back to last season. Redshirt sophomore guard Carl Krauser remains listed as day-to-day with a pulled groin, which may force freshman guard Antonio Graves into seeing extended playing time. Graves scored seven points and dished out five assists in 29 minutes against Virginia Tech, despite six turnovers.

“He’s a great kid and he had a great practice [on Monday],” Dixon said about Graves. “It’s a great sign of maturity for a freshman player to overcome some early struggles and play a good game.”

The last time Pitt played at Miami, in January of 2002, it lost 76-69. The Panthers avenged their loss against Miami in the 2002 Big East Tournament, but this year’s game will be a significant harbinger of the rest of the Panthers’ season, since it will be their first road contest in a hostile environment.

Nevertheless, Page is aware of the challenges that accompany the Panthers’ Big East schedule.

“Each team you play [in the Big East] is a good team, and that’s just how the Big East Conference is,” Page said.

Tip-off is scheduled for 2 p.m. and will be televised on FOX Sports.