by Ray Fittipaldo, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette , Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Pitt's three home-and-home opponents are West Virginia, Seton Hall and St. John's. They finished seventh, 11th and 13th, respectively, in the Big East standings last season. Pitt tied for second with Connecticut, a game behind Louisville.

West Virginia, a perennial home-and-home opponent for Pitt, is expected to make a jump to the top of the conference next season, but Seton Hall and St. John's have been lower-tier teams in the league for years. Seton Hall has finished among the top eight teams once in the past five seasons, while St. John's has not finished higher than 11th place in the past six seasons.

The Big East has an unbalanced schedule because it has 16 teams. Each team plays every other team at least once with three home-and-home series for an 18-game league schedule.

Pitt will play home games against DePaul, Georgetown, Louisville, Providence, Rutgers, St. John's, Seton Hall, Villanova and West Virginia, and road games against Cincinnati, Connecticut, Marquette, Notre Dame, St. John's, Seton Hall, South Florida, Syracuse and West Virginia.

West Virginia's three home-and-home opponents are Pitt, Seton Hall and Villanova. The Mountaineers will play home games against Cincinnati, Georgetown, Louisville, Marquette, Pitt, Rutgers, Seton Hall, Syracuse and Villanova; road opponents are Connecticut, DePaul, Notre Dame, Pitt, Providence, St. John's, Seton Hall, South Florida and Villanova.

Pitt previously announced a Dec. 8 non-conference game against Indiana in the Jimmy V Classic. The Panthers also will participate in the O'Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic Nov. 23-24 in Kansas City in which they will play two of the following three teams: Texas, Iowa and Wichita State.

Also yesterday, Holy Cross decided against hiring Pitt associate head coach Tom Herrion for its head coaching position. The Crusaders hired Notre Dame assistant Sean Kearney instead. Herrion had been one of three finalists for the job that was vacated when Ralph Willard, a former Pitt head coach, left to become Rick Pitino's top assistant at Louisville.

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