PITTSBURGH — On Friday night, Pitt fell to West Virginia by a lopsided score of 81-56, making that six straight wins by West Virginia in the Backyard Brawl hoops series.
The series dates all the way back to 1905, the inaugural season of Pitt hoops. However, as of now, the series is only scheduled to run until next season.
In 2020, the two sides agreed to extend the series two more years. After the game was cancelled due to COVID-19 in 2020, the series was pushed back. Friday night’s game was the first game of the two-year series extension. So, Pitt is slated to visit West Virginia next season, but after that, there are no future games scheduled between the two.
“The series is awesome,” Capel said about the Brawl. “We need to do our part to make it more of a rivalry. It’s awesome, I hope it’s something that continues. It should continue.”
West Virginia Dominates Shorthanded Panthers in Backyard Brawl, 81-56
Including Friday night’s win, West Virginia leads the all-time series 103-88 over the Panthers.
After the win, West Virginia’s Erik Stevenson, who scored 16 points, was asked how long it took him to realize that this game was different than a typical game.
“The football game where they played,” Stevenson said. “It was pretty easy to figure out the rivalry. Our fans travel really well for every sport, and I was at the football game myself and I saw a lot of Mountaineer fans there. Next week, when Pitt played a home game there was nobody at the game, I knew what it was, I knew what it meant. It’s the Backyard Brawl, man.”
With the loss, Pitt falls to 1-1 on the season, while West Virginia advances to 2-0.
As much as Pitt plays WVU it would seem like Capel sees how defense is played. The offense is better but they still stink playing defense.