PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan)- When things were more “normal” than they are now, Jeff Capel and his Pitt basketball program would been gearing up for, or would have already had, its first game(s) of the season.
Now though, the Panthers will wait for about another month before playing Northwestern on Dec. 9th to begin game action.
Capel joined The Fan Morning Show Wednesday and said that Pitt’s 2020-21 schedule is still yet to be finished. Right now, Northwestern is the only non-conference matchup outside of the 20 ACC games the Panthers will participate in. But Capel said the plan is to add 4 more non-conference games, ensuring a 25-game season (20 in-conference, 5 non-conference). Also, Pitt will not be playing in a multi-team event this year, like the ACC-Big Ten Challenge for example, like they have in the past.
“We have an idea of who it is we’re going to play and who it is that we want to play, but we’re waiting to get contracts back,” said Capel.
To highlight the fluidity to scheduling for this season, Capel shared that there is still constant communication going on between schools to fill out as full a slate of games as possible.
“It’s been a real challenge for programs around the country, you only see some that have put out their conference schedule yet. I can tell you, on Novemeber 2nd I got a text for a friend of mine of a Power 5 in another conference asking me if we want to play. On November 2nd asking me that, like they needed one more game and asked if we wanted to play.”
The ACC portion of the schedule was released on Tuesday, something that was a welcome sight to Capel and his team.
“It’s exciting because it gives you some sense of normalcy in a time where that doesn’t really exist. You spend all this time training and practicing and working on your game to lead up to those moments where you have an opportunity to compete against someone else. To now have the dates of when those competitions will happen, it gives you more of a goal. It gives you more of ‘OK, this is going to happen.” It’s tangible things to look forward to throughout all this work that we’ve put in.”