Stallings' Era Off to Mediocre Start
The Pitt Panthers basketball season opened up last Friday night in a double OT thriller that wasn't expected to be close at all. The Eagles of Eastern Michigan gave Pitt all they could handle as the Panthers won 93-90 with 53/93 points coming from Jamel Artis and Michael Young. The Panthers had 33 three point attempts which was over 50% of their field goal attempts. Shot selection needs to be improved as that was evident here. The Panthers then hosted Gardner-Webb Monday night and shot very well from beyond the arc at 50% going 13/26. Sophomore Cam Johnson was a perfect 4/4 for three and will be the X factor for many games to come for the Panthers. Pitt looked more impressive and won 99-80 in this one. Trouble came Thursday night in the 2K Classic at Madison Square Garden as the Panthers got a real test in SMU. The Mustangs were all over the Panthers down low and seemed to always out muscle the Pitt bigs. Scoring was dominated by Artis and Young once again as they accounted for 42/67 points the Panthers put up, but it wasn't enough as the Mustangs won 76-67. Pitt will play Marquette in an old school Big East battle for 3rd place in this tournament Friday afternoon.
