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After two exhibition games, Pitt's basketball season finally gets underway on Friday as the Panthers open against Niagara.
Despite some lackluster performances in the preseason, Pitt, predictably, opens as heavy favorites. The line opened up with the Panthers as 27-point favorites and while it dipped a little to 25 points by Thursday night, Vegas still sees Pitt has a big winner on Friday.
Pitt swept their summer Bahamas tour, winning all four of those exhibition games easily (something that Kentucky and North Carolina didn't do, by the way), but still hasn't looked all that impressive in their first two exhibition games against IUP and Philadelphia. Against Philadelphia, in particular, the team struggled, trailing at halftime before pulling away late.
It will be interesting to see now only how they try to rebound from those lackluster performances, but also how they fare without their leading returning scorer, Cam Wright, who is out for several weeks recovering from surgery.
Game time at 7:00 p.m.
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