Pittsburgh Basketball: Why Panthers will be better than West Virginia in 2019-20
Homecourt Advantage
The Oakland Zoo got a makeover as the new blue and gold script has been 100-percent adopted by the university. The court’s color change has sparked a little more excitement from fans and players to start the season for a rebuilding Pitt team.
Pitt looks to continue to build on its 11-7 at home record last season as most of their wins came at the Pete. Pitt finished 0-11 on the road while WVU posted an almost identical home record of 11-7 and 0-10 away record. Pitt has lost 23-straight regular season away games with the last road win coming against Boston College 83-72 on Feb. 8, 2017. WVU has lost 12-straight dating back the 77-69 win over Kansas State on Jan. 1, 2018.
Both teams struggle on the road, to say the least, giving Pitt an early advantage in the 187th edition of the Backyard Brawl. In last seasons matchup in West Virginia, there were a combined 50 turnovers and 49 fouls in the Mountaineers 69-59 win. Pitt was down 12 at half (39-27) and could never cut the deficit. The Panthers shot 17 of 54 (31.5%) from the field and 6 of 23 (26.1%) from three in the loss.
The Oakland Zoo attendance rose last year with Capel taking over after a dismal two-year campaign of forgettable basketball with Kevin Stallings. Attendance was so bad at one point, Stallings’ Panthers were breaking records with 2,333 fans in attendance for a Dec. 5 matchup versus Mount St. Mary’s. Pitt recorded its lowest attendance total (4,117) since 1981-82.
With Capel, that number grew to an average of 6,749 per home game, and more wins, a combination Athletic Director Heather Lyke was looking for after Dixon and Stallings exits.
Pitt will host Florida State (Nov. 6) to open the season and non-conference opponents, Nicholls State (Nov. 9), West Virginia (Nov. 15), Monmouth (Nov. 18), Arkansas Pine-Bluff (Nov. 21), Rutgers (Dec. 3), Northern Illinois (Dec. 15), Binghampton (Dec. 20), and Canisius (Dec. 30). The Panthers ACC schedule at the Pete will be Boston College, Clemson, National Champion Virginia, and Wake Forest.
West Virginia has a light non-conference schedule hosting Akron (Nov. 8), Northern Colorado (Nov. 18), Boston U (Nov. 22), Rhode Island (Dec. 1), Austin Peay (Dec. 12), Nicholls State (Dec. 14), Youngstown State (Dec. 21) and Missouri (Jan. 25).
The two programs upcoming non-conference schedules aren’t too different nor difficult, but WVU’s definitely the easier of the two. If the Mountaineers manage to lose any home non-conference games outside of Rhode Island or Missouri there will be questions arising out of thin air for Coach Huggins after an abysmal 2018-19 season.
The Mountaineers lost non-conference home matches to Buffalo, Western Kentucky, Florida, and Rhode Island while Pitt’s only lost at home to a Non-ACC opponent was a 71-70 upset loss to Niagara. Both teams will get their shot at each other starting Nov. 15 an early-season matchup to determine what type of team we may see the first two months of the season. WVU will play Akron at home before traveling to Pittsburgh, while Pitt has three games before the Backyard Brawl.
dark. Next. Top 25 homecourt advantages
Something tells me Jeff Capel and the Pitt Panthers will win the Backyard Brawl for the first time since Jan. 30, 2012 and total more wins than the Mountaineers for the first time since 2013-14. The Panthers are only a couple games away from being over .500 for the first time since the Jamie Dixon era (2015-16) and this Pitt team will be the best unit assembled in over five years.