Panthers ready to 'feed off each other's energy' as Pitt opens basketball season in empty arena - TribLIVE

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The Pitt Panthers are ready to open the basketball season against St. Francis on Wednesday night, even if it’s in an empty arena.

Pitt junior swingman Au’Diese Toney said the Panthers have been practicing with “fake fans in the arena” by playing automated crowd noise to simulate the sounds of college basketball.

“We have to feed off each other’s energy,” Toney said Tuesday afternoon on a video conference call. “As you soon as you walk into practice, there’s got to be energy because the gym’s going to be empty. So you’ve got to lift your own team up and bring your own energy to the gym. As long as we maintain that, we should be good.”

On the eve of the men’s basketball season opener, the university announced Tuesday it won’t allow the general public into games or sell single-game tickets because of the state’s covid-19 social distancing guidelines of 5% capacity for venues that seat 10,000 or more, limiting attendance to 500 people at the 12,508-seat Petersen Events Center.

Only players, coaches and support staff, as well as players’ and coaches’ families and special guests will be admitted to the arena for games. Those who do attend will be required to use mobile ticketing at entrances, wear masks and follow social distancing guidelines.

“Our families still get to come to the games, and that’s the most important fans to us,” Pitt junior point guard Xavier Johnson said. “I’m not saying that the other fans don’t matter, but those are our real fans, no matter what. We’re ready to play, honestly. Our staff is getting us ready for our team to follow protocol for us to get ready to play.”

The news quelled some of the excitement for a Pitt program that promises to improve on its 16-17 record from last season. Along with Johnson and Toney, the Panthers return their top scorer in sophomore swingman Justin Champagnie, leading shot blocker in 6-foot-10 senior Terrell Brown and top reserves Abdoul Karim Coulibaly and Gerald Drumgoole while adding a transfer in sophomore guard Ithiel Horton, who averaged 13.2 points at Delaware in 2018-19.

Pitt coach Jeff Capel also brought in a heralded freshman class headlined by a top-100 recruit in 6-9 power forward John Hugley, 6-7 forward William Jeffress, 6-5 guard Femi Odukale, 6-8 forward Noah Collier and 6-10 center Max Amadasun.

“This team is more skilled,” Toney said. “Everybody can bring something to the table. This team is different. Everybody can push the ball, run multiple positions and just cause chaos on the defensive end.”

The Panthers, however, are opening the season later than normal because of schedule changes complicated by the coronavirus. They haven’t started a season this late in November since 1995, when they beat Duquesne in the City Game on Nov. 29.

The Panthers are 15-0 in season openers at Petersen Events Center, winning those games by an average margin of 21.3 points. They are 43-1 against Northeast Conference opponents (losing only to Wagner in 2011), including 3-0 against St. Francis (1980-81, ’84-85 and ’92-93).

The Red Flash finished 22-19 last season, losing to Robert Morris in the NEC championship game, but lost their top two scorers in Isaiah Blackmon (18.8 points a game) and Keith Braxton (17.6).

“They’re a team that knows how to win on a consistent basis,” Johnson said. “They went to the (NEC) finals last year at Robert Morris and lost. That proves that they’re a good team. It’ll be a good, competitive game.”

Kevin Gorman is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Kevin by email at kgorman@triblive.com or via Twitter .

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