Coming home after a long roadtrip can give a boost to any team.
It's especially true when it gets a true homecourt advantage out of it.
For the first time in more than a month, Pitt will have its beloved Oakland Zoo back in full force. The last instance of a Panthers home game while classes were in session was Dec. 17, the date on which the fall semester ended.
The Pitt students were on break from that point until Jan. 9, but the Panthers had three road games in between that date and Saturday's home tip-off at 3 p.m. against Florida State. It will be the first time this season an ACC opponent visits the Petersen Events Center while classes are in session at Pitt.
With Pitt as a bubble team -- a firm one, at that -- with respect to the NCAA Tournament, that home-court advantage is anticipated to be revved back up to the level it was at seven years ago.
"Playing on the road is difficult," Guillermo Diaz Graham said on Friday. "You don't have the Oakland Zoo to support you. Coming back to The Pete, coming back to The Zoo, the energy is going to be even better. We're all excited. We've got a big home game. We want to keep winning."
Pitt is 8-2 at home, with losses against West Virginia on Nov. 11 and ACC leader Clemson on Jan. 7. The Panthers' NET ranking of 50, as of Friday evening, is sixth-best in the ACC, whereas Florida State (6-13, 4-4 ACC) is 207th overall and 13th in the ACC. The Seminoles have relatively rebounded from a horrendous 1-9 start to its season and are coming off an 84-71 win at Notre Dame on Tuesday.
Florida State is a team that still can be had, as it has sustained multiple injuries to key players within its rotation. Jaylan Gainey and Cam Fletcher are each out for the season with ACLs. Baba Miller has tonsillitis after he served a 16-game suspension, and Chandler Jackson is working back from a broken thumb.
Nonetheless, Matthew Cleveland is still around. He leads the Seminoles in scoring at 14.4 points per game, is sixth in the ACC in rebounding at 8.1 per game, and is 10th in the ACC in field goal percentage at 47.4%. Florida State's Darin Green, Jr. is second in the ACC in 3-pointers made with 56, and his 40.9% rate from distance leads the ACC.
The Seminoles do bring some size, although it is inexperienced. Sophomore center Naheem McLeod stands at 7-foot-4, though he has posted just 3.8 points and 3.0 rebounds per game. He has played in 17 games and has started 11 of them.
"They're a good team that plays out in transition," Jamarius Burton said Friday. "They really thrive on playing in the open floor, and then the size and the type of athletes and talent that they have over there. They've got a 7-4 guy in the middle, so it's important that we gang rebound in this game.
"Throughout the course of the season our chemistry has gotten better. Our ability to make reads and figure out how teams are defending us and then respond accordingly is one of the biggest things we've been able to take from Game 1 all the way up until now."
Pitt (13-6, 6-2) will need that synergy to be on point on Saturday. The Seminoles qualify as a "Quadrant 4" team with respect to the NCAA NET. Pitt is 7-0 against such teams this season and cannot afford a loss to such a team.
"It's been great energy (in practice), but the guys and I, we aren't complacent," Burton said. "We're locking in at the task at hand and trying to go 1-0 over this weekend."
A dose of home cooking should provide another boost for the Panthers. The last three games inside of the Petersen Events Center have been settled by a combined six points, with Pitt earning wins over No. 25 North Carolina and No. 11 Virginia by a combined five points. The loss to Clemson was by one point.
"We hope the Zoo shows up and shows out for us," Burton said, "but for us more than anything, we've just got to lock in at the task at hand."
