PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – The Panthers announced a football home-and-home, a former Panthers star will play again in the Pete and the basketball opener leaked out. Here are a few Panthers notes.
Pitt special
Football has scheduled a home-and-home with Big 12 conference member Central Florida. UCF will visit Pitt on September 12, 2026 and the Panthers will go to Orlando on September 15, 2029.
Pitt leads the series 2-1, beating Central Florida in their most recent meeting in 2019 on a two-point conversion with receiver Aaron Mathews completing a pass to quarterback Kenny Pickett.
Zoo Crew add
The Petersen Events Center will be the home of the first-round of The Basketball Tournament (TBT) in July featuring alumni from college basketball programs playing for a million-dollar prize. They are adding a member of a Big East Conference championship team, forward Lamar Patterson.
The now 32-year-old played in 149 games at Pitt scoring 1,410 points as his final season was the Panthers first in the ACC. Last year DeJuan Blair coached the team with help from Gilbert Brown, recent Panther Nike Sibande and Jamel Artis have also committed to play.
Among the other teams in the Pittsburgh Regional-Happy Valley Hoopers (Penn State), Best Virginia (West Virginia) and Storrs (UConn).
Hoops opener
CBS Sports college basketball insider Jon Rothstein reports Pitt will open this coming season at home on November 4 against Radford. The Highlanders finished 16-17 overall last year and were only down a point, midway in the second half at North Carolina in a non-conference game last year.