The Big East announced each team's opponents for the 2009-10 men's basketball season today and Pitt appears to have received a break from the schedule makers.

Pitt's three home-and-home opponents are West Virginia, Seton Hall and St. John's. They placed seventh, 11th and 13th in the Big East standings last season.

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 in the Big East once in the past five years while St. John's has not finished better than 11th place in the past six seasons.

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

The Panthers will play home games against DePaul, Georgetown, Louisville, Providence, Rutgers, St. John's, Seton Hall, Villanova and West Virginia.

They will play road games against Cincinnati, Connecticut, Marquette, Notre Dame, St. John's, Seton Hall, South Florida, Syracuse and West Virginia.

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 in Kansas City during the non-conference schedule November 23 and 24. They will play two of the following three teams: Texas, Iowa and Wichita State.

West Virginia will play home games against Cincinnati, Georgetown, Louisville, Marquette, Pitt, Rutgers, Seton Hall, Syracuse and Villanova.

The Mountaineers will play road games at Connecticut, DePaul, Notre Dame, Pitt, Providence, St. John's, Seton Hall, South Florida and Villanova.

West Virginia's complete basketball schedule will be announced in early September.

Colin Dunlap contributed to this report

Ray Fittipaldo can be reached at rfittipaldo@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1230.