Pittsburgh Basketball: Ranking non-conference opponents for 2021-22 season

10. Jacksonville Dolphins

2020-21 season record: 11-13 (5-9 in ASUN)

The Dolphins lost a fair amount of talent this offseason, including star forward Dontarius James and key pieces, Diante Wood and Tyrece Davis. The good news is Kevion Nolan, who averaged 16.6 ppg and 3.7 apg in nine games after dealing with injuries before the season began.

Jacksonville did bring in a bunch of transfers, led by Ed Chang, Davion Stephens, and guard Tommy Bruner. But unless a couple of them breaks out to have quality campaigns, this team will struggle to get out the bottom of the conference.

9. The Citadel Bulldogs

2020-21 season record: 13-12 (5-11 in SoCon)

Until the past season, The Citadel didn’t win more than 12 games in a year since 2010. They managed to get 13 in a shortened campaign, led by star forward Hayden Brown. He led the team with 18.8 ppg and 10.5 rpg and was an all-conference player. The team overall was one of the best-scoring teams in the country and plays at a fairly fast pace overall.

The concern here is that the team doesn’t have their second-leading scorer Kaiden Rice (17.6 ppg). Their only other double-digit producer Fletcher Abee (12.4 ppg) is back but the supporting cast is in question. Unless Brown goes for 20+ points on a given night, the odds aren’t good that they’ll get to 13 wins again.