The game will be the first meeting between the Panthers and Bulldogs
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The Pitt men’s basketball team will open the 2021-22 season with a matchup against the Citadel at the Petersen Events Center on Nov. 9. Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports was the first to reveal the game, which is one of several on Pitt’s schedule for next season that is known.
In addition to the Citadel, Pitt is set to play West Virginia in Morgantown on Nov. 12 and St. John’s in New York City at some point in December. Another aspect of Pitt’s schedule that is known is that rival Duquesne is once again not scheduled, as it appears Pitt has put the City Game on the back burner.
Pitt and the Citadel have never played before. However, the Citadel is a member of the Southern Conference, and Pitt has never lost to any team from the Southern Conference in nine attempts. The team’s most recent victory over a SoCon program came against VMI on Nov. 9, 2018. The Panthers beat the Keydets 94-55.
Last season, the Citadel went 13-12 and finished No. 218 out of 357 teams in the Ken Pomeroy rankings. It was the first time in Citadel head coach Duggar Baucom’s six years with the team that the Bulldogs were able to post a winning record. This fall, the team will look to build on that success, and it will have top scorer Hayden Brown, who averaged 18.8 points last season, at its disposal again.
As for Pitt, the team has not posted a winning record since 2017, but it has generally been successful against lower-tier teams. With that said, the Panthers will enter next season with a reconstructed roster featuring a few transfers and missing some key contributors from last season. So at the least, the game will serve as an important test run for the new-look team.
