How Pitt’s basketball-football doubleheader came about

Thursday, 08 November 2012 13:19

Written by Ray Fittipaldo

Wondering why the Pitt basketball team is playing on the same night as the football team Friday night?

The athletic department does everything in its power to avoid its two most popular teams from playing on the same day – especially back-to-back – but this conflict could not be avoided.

The basketball team will play Mount St. Mary’s at 6 p.m. and the football teams plays Connecticut at 8 p.m.

Basketball coach Jamie Dixon said the Mount St. Mary’s game was already scheduled before the football schedule came out. Dixon scheduled the game anticipating the football team would be playing on a Saturday. But the Big East and ESPN selected the Pitt-Connecticut game for Friday night in prime-time. (They must have been thinking it was a Panthers-Huskies basketball game, right?)

In some cases, Dixon might have asked Mount St. Mary’s to move the game to Saturday, but that was not a possibility. The Panthers play Monday and Tuesday in the preseason N.I.T. and Dixon did not wish to play three games in four days to open the season. So there is the strange 6 p.m. start time, which should make traffic interesting beforehand.

But fans won't have to worry about rushing home to catch the football game. Dixon said the athletic department is accommodating the fans by showing the football game on the big screen after the basketball game ends.   

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