Pitt Hoops Game Preview: Pitt vs. Nicholls State

Pitt faces off against the Nicholls State Colonels (0-1) at the Petersen Events Center today, coming off of a big home win against Florida State to start the year. This will be the first ever matchup between Pitt and Nicholls State. Tipoff is at noon, with the game set to air on ACCNX.

Fast Facts

• Nicholls State, a member of the Southland conference, is coming off of a tight loss to Illinois, as they took the Illini to overtime before falling 78-70 in Champaign.
• Nicholls State’s head coach, Austin Claunch, is in his second year in that position with the team. At just 29 years old, Claunch is currently the youngest head coach in Division-I men’s basketball.
• The Colonels finished with a 14-17 (7-11) record in Claunch’s first year at the helm, but are just one year removed from a 21-win season in which they won 15 conference games to tie for the regular season Southland conference title.
• Nicholls State is currently ranked no. 273 in Ken Pomeroy’s college basketball ranking. Pitt is ranked no. 65.

Nicholls State Preview

Nicholls State will come into this game still searching for their team identity, having lost several key players from last year’s team. Most importantly, the Colonels need to replace the production of their leading scorer and All-Southland Honorable Mention guard Jeremiah Jefferson, who put up 17.2 points per game last year while averaging 34.5 minutes on the floor.

The Colonels also lost two other key players: senior Gavin Peppers, who averaged 13.8 points per game and shot an elite 94 percent from the free throw line; and senior center Daniel Regis, who started 19 games and averaged 6.8 points and 5.0 rebounds per game last season.

They return two starters from last season, in junior guard Kevin Johnson, and senior forward Brandon Moore Jr. Johnson played a whopping 41 minutes in the Colonels’ overtime loss to Illinois, but mustered just four points on 1-of-6 shooting, though he did add seven assists and four steals. Moore Jr. interestingly played just 10 minutes in the loss, despite last year leading the team in rebounds per game, and putting up a nice 8.6 points and 7.0 rebounds per game stat-line.

The leading scorer for the Colonels against Illinois was redshirt senior guard Dexter McClanahan, who put up 25 points against the Illini. Senior Elvis Harvey added 16 points on 2-of-4 shooting from beyond the arc.

Pitt Preview

Pitt is obviously coming off of a big, home ACC win to start their season, as they held on to a narrow 63-61 lead against the Florida State Seminoles. There were many interesting rotational bits about that game, including that Pitt used the same lineup for nearly 12 straight minutes to end the game. That lineup included Xavier Johnson, Trey McGowens, Ryan Murphy, Justin Champagnie, and Terrell Brown.

It will be interesting to see how Capel’s trust in that particular group impacts playing time moving forward, since Au’Diese Toney, Gerald Drumgoole, and Eric Hamilton were actually the starters alongside Johnson and McGowens, but did not see any action during the stretch run.

You can also likely expect to see freshman Abdoul Karim Coulibaly play today, after he did not see the floor against Florida State. As a true freshman against a team with elite bigs, Coulibaly may have been deemed not-yet-ready for ACC play. Gaining solid experience against less successful D-I programs may help him get the experience that he needs to contribute in ACC play this winter.

Tonight’s Game Preview

Look for Jeff Capel to use several different lineups as he continues to build team chemistry after adding several new teammates this summer. I also expect to see a lot of Toney and Drumgoole, who saw 13 and 18 minutes in the season opener, respectively. Getting those young men into a groove as we get deeper into the season will be huge for the Panthers, and that starts with having them on the court in games like today’s matchup.

Relatedly, I expect Johnson and McGowens to see less time on the court than they did against the Seminoles, when they played 38 and 35 minutes, respectively. Capel certainly does not want to tire out his two star guards too early in the season. Fans should also be excited to see Coulibaly’s debut, as the true freshman has brought significant hype to Pitt with him after he led Mali to the championship game in the FIBA U19 World Cup.

Pitt enters this game as a heavy favorite against the Nicholls State Colonels, and coming off of a good ACC win, it is easy to understand why. However, Nicholls State does have its own weapons that Pitt will need to contain, and that starts with Johnson, McClanahan, and Harvey. Those are three legitimate scorers for Nicholls State, and Pitt will need to play tight defense, or else they will face a similarly close game with the Colonels as Illinois did on Nov. 5.