With the exception of a few non-cons that are already set, the Pitt basketball schedule is still an amorphous blob. We know a lot of the teams Pitt will play. We just don’t know when — and up until yesterday: where.

That is no longer the case with the Big East announcing the match-ups for all the teams.

Thanks to the NCAA-record 11 BIG EAST teams that played in the 2011 NCAA Championship, this year’s schedule includes an unprecedented 131 games — or 91 percent of the conference ledger — that will feature at least one NCAA tournament team from last year. Sixty-seven games — 47 percent of the schedule – will be between two of the conference’ s NCAA tournament teams.

Each of the 16 BIG EAST teams will play either 12 or 13 conference games against NCAA tournament teams.

The conference schedule will once again include 144 regular-season games as each of the BIG EAST’s 16 teams plays 18 conference games. Each team will face 12 opponents once and three opponents twice. All 144 regular-season conference games will again be televised, either by CBS Sports, the ESPN family of networks or ESPN Regional Television.

The decisions regarding repeat opponents are based on natural interest, geography, rivalries, television contractual obligations and competitive balance.

And here’s what Pitt has to look forward to in 2011-12:

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Welcome to Pitt Basketball Summer School. A look at individual Panther players and what they need to do to get better — and by extension make Pitt a better team for the 2011-12 season. Brought to you by SilverPanther in NYC.

In case you missed previous threads, here are Travon Woodall and Ashton Gibbs.

Intro:
Next up is the senior 2-year starting power forward Nasir Robinson, who no doubt more than any other Panther, is looking forward to the start of the 2011-12 season.

What he gave us last year:
Let’s put aside the final moments of Nasir Robinson’s junior season and look at everything that happened up until that fateful point in time. He started off on the DL with a torn meniscus and missed the first three games of the year, made his first appearance in the Maryland game, and then continued to come off the bench for another month before starting the UConn game in late December. By that time though, he was playing starter minutes over Talib Zanna and was contributing consistent, though not particularly impressive, offensive numbers. His season averages came to just under 10 points and 5 rebounds per game. He actually averaged more rebounds in his sophomore campaign (just under 6 per game). So what to make of this undersized power forward on one of the (statistically) top rebounding teams in the country?

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