While it won’t ruin their seasons if they lose tonight (like in the flawed sport of college football), the Duquesne and Pitt men’s basketball programs have two huge games tonight.
The Panthers and Dukes aren’t playing for a championship, but they both have an opportunity to pick up some important national credibility with a win.
Pitt will take on Florida in the Preseason NIT while Keith Dambrot’s squad is in Big Ten country taking on the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Both teams enter tonight as underdogs, Pitt are +3.5 dogs, while Nebraska is favored to win by -7.5 over the Dukes.
Both teams have gotten out to strong starts with Pitt being undefeated at 4-0 and Duquesne getting out to a 4-1 start. In the next few weeks, a lot of questions will be answered, particularly with Pitt, as the competition improves.
To this point, Duquesne has played a more difficult non-conference schedule with opponents such as Cleveland State, Charleston and Princeton. Following tonight’s game, Duquesne will take on UC-Irvine (4-1) at home, who has wins over New Mexico State, USC and Pepperdine. That’ll be a difficult game.
Pitt’s schedule hasn’t exactly been challenging with games against North Carolina A&T, Binghamton, Florida Gulf Coast and Jacksonville, whose combined records are 6-13. But to their credit, they’ve done what good teams are supposed to do and dominated inferior opponents.
Starting tonight in New York, the competition will rise with upcoming games against Florida, Baylor or Oregon State, Missouri, Clemson and West Virginia.
To this point, both Pitt and Duquesne have played extremely well and have gotten some national attention but wins tonight would get them a ton more.
Along with ‘street cred,’ wins tonight would give Pitt and Duquesne a lift in the always-important computer rankings.
Currently in the updated KenPom Ratings, Pitt sits at No. 40 while Florida is No. 35, so a good effort would no doubt help the Panthers. Looking at Duquesne, they’re No. 83 but are taking on a Nebraska team that’s 5-0 and ranked No. 45.
As I said, a loss wouldn’t be a killer but a win or a solid outing will strength the belief that Pittsburgh has two really solid basketball programs that have a chance to be playing in March.
It’s ironic how similar these two teams are with guard play being their strengths, led by Dae Dae Grant, Jimmy Clark, Kareem Rozier, Carlton Carrington, and Ishmael Leggett. While the Panthers have a proven front-court scorer and leader in Blake Hinson, how competitive the teams will be later in the season will likely come down to the production they can get out of their other front court players. The guards can’t be asked to lead them every game and they’ll need help. Can the Diaz Graham brothers, Federiko Federiko, Zack Austin, Will Jeffress, Fousseyni Drame, Andrei Savrasov, Tre Williams, Hassan Drame, Halil Barre and David Dixon step in and take turns in providing offense and solid defense?
Now that football season is over with, how fun is it to be able to talk about two really good, really competitive basketball teams with legitimate expectations! Jeff Capel will be trying to get this Panther team to the NCAA Tournament in consecutive years for the first time since 2012-2014.
For Duquesne, it would be a bigger accomplishment considering the Dukes haven’t been dancing in the tournament since 1976. Let me repeat that, 1976! The Dukes finished last season with 20 wins and if they’re able to repeat that this year, it would be their first back-to-back 20-win seasons since 1970-71/1971-72. That’s mind-boggling.
Basketball as a whole is as strong as it’s been locally in a long time, so tonight and the rest of the season should be fun.
The next thing that needs to happen is for these two programs to resume playing each other, but unfortunately that’s not likely to happen for a long time.
agree. by the time UNC rolls into town (jan 2), we will have a much better feel for this Pitt team. i can’t wait to see them compete. H2P !
A good litmus test for Pitt tonite.
Prediction: Dukes over Nebraska, Florida over Pitt
That could happen. Pitt is a better team than Duquesne though. Seen them both play in person. There is a significant difference. As an alum you should not hate on the Pitt basketball program. Last years team and this years team are both pretty good.
They may or may not be better. Capel refuses to schedule them. And making a prediction is not “hating” on anyone
it is really stupid these teams don’t play anymore. I know Capel wasn’t into it, but is that the real scoop? Is that really it? He was scared when they sucked so that’s it? done? I haven’t heard much from Dambrot, a la Narduzzi and PSU.
Anyway, a real shame.