Pitt vs. Eastern Michigan: Open Gamethread

Here we are, folks.

Pitt's basketball season officially starts tonight. The Panthers had a tuneup exhibition game against Pitt-Johnstown last week, but the team's first regular season game is this evening against Eastern Michigan.

Eastern Michigan wasn't a bad team last year, going 18-15 despite a terrible stretch in the middle of the year when they lost five straight and seven out of nine. The Eagles struggled badly against the better teams on their schedule, though. They lost by 24 to Michigan State, 33 to Louisville, and 11 to Penn State.

Like Pitt, though, Eastern Michigan returns quite a bit, including their top four scorers. Leading the way is James Thompson and Ray Lee, who combined for 30 points per game. Thompson is only a sophomore, but was the MAC Freshman of the Year last season and was second team All-Conference.

Obviously it's also the first game of the Kevin Stallings era. We'll see Jamel Artis at point guard and get a look at the new offense, which is expected to free players up a little more and also be a faster style of play.

The game is at 7:00 p.m. and you can catch it on WatchESPN. Join us here to comment live during the game.

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