While we knew of the four main teams that were a part of the 2K Classic to be held this basketball season, we weren't sure who Pitt would face. That all changed on Wednesday as the matchups were released.
The Panthers' first two opponents will be Eastern Michigan and Gardner-Webb. Pitt will play both of those games at home and, independent of the result, will then go on to play SMU at Madison Square Garden in the semifinals. Marquette will face Michigan and then both winners will square off in the final while the losers will play in a consolation game.
Pitt will open things up with Eastern Michigan on Friday, November 11th and then will face Gardner-Webb on Monday, November 14th (times for both games are to be determined). The Panthers' game again SMU will be on Thursday, November 17th at 7:00 p.m. on ESPN2. The final and consolation game will be the next day on Friday, November 18th. Here's the full schedule for all of the games.
The event, regardless of the results, will be a good experience for Pitt since they'll be forced to play back-to-back games, similar to the NCAA Tournament where there's only a day off in between games in each round. It will be interesting to see how a new coach has them prepared in that situation. Michigan probably would have been the preferred first-round opponent in terms of name recognition, but Pitt will still face an SMU team that won 25 games last year. They no longer have head coach Larry Brown, who recently left the program abruptly.
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