Representatives from two of the best basketball conferences over the past half-decade meet Monday in the Fort Myers Tip-Off.

Who: Pitt Panthers (4-2) vs. Kansas State Wildcats (

What: Fort Myers Tip-Off Semifinals 

When: Monday, Nov. 25, 6 p.m. ET 

Where: Suncoast Credit Union Arena 

Watch: LIVE on FloHoops (Geoblock Restrictions Apply)

Reigning Big 12 co-champion Kansas State aims to remind the nation of its recent prominence under coach Bruce Weber with an early-season championship, but must first get past a Pitt Panthers bunch hoping to make noise in the top-heavy ACC. 

Monday marks just the second matchup in history between the two programs, falling almost five years to the day of their only encounter. Pitt won a 70-47 rout in Hawaii on Nov. 26, 2014. 

On location?#ZooEra pic.twitter.com/mcFInTy5JK

— Pitt Basketball (@Pitt_MBB) November 24, 2019

Pitt’s coach then, Jamie Dixon, is an opponent K-State’s Weber knows well: Dixon’s now the head coach at TCU of the Big 12. At the helm for the Panthers now is Jeff Capel III, a longtime Mike Krzyzewski assistant and former Big 12 head coach in his own right. 

Capel’s in his second year of a rebuild at Pitt, and already seeing positive progress in the early going of Year 2. The Panthers will try to make their loudest statement yet against a K-State team with the aforementioned Big 12 title and an Elite Eight run during the past two seasons. 

Pitt Panthers At A Glance

Ben Howland and Dixon established Pitt as one of the most physically imposing programs of the 2000s and into the early 2010s. The Panthers’ rough-and-tumble style was tailor-made for the Big East Conference. 

Shortly after football-motivated realignment sent Pitt off to the ACC, Dixon left for his alma mater TCU, and his replacement – Kevin Stallings – spent two disastrous seasons at the helm. 

The Panthers have just seven ACC wins over the last three seasons, but 2019-20 already shows hope for dramatic improvement. 

Names To Know

It’s perhaps unsurprising that in a rebuilding process, Capel leans heavily on a younger corps. Some of Pitt’s leading contributors are either sophomores – Trey McGowens, Xavier Johnson and Au’Diese Toney – or freshman Justin Champagnie. 

Ryan Murphy and Terrell Brown round out the typical five-man rotation Capel’s used through the Panthers’ first six games. 

Offense

Capel’s best teams at Oklahoma were known for their high-flying, potent offensive style. Playing the best college basketball player in his era, Blake Griffin, certainly helped. 

Establishing an offensive identity is the greatest work-in-progress ahead for this staff. Even Capel’s successful predecessors, Howland and Dixon, oversaw NCAA Tournament-quality teams that struggled to score consistently. 

To that end, Pitt is finding its strengths on that side of the ball. Outside of Johnson and McGowens, 3-point shooting has not been a strength. However, the Panthers have been excellent on the offensive glass with the nation’s 24^th-best offensive rebounding percentage per KenPom.com metrics. 

Four Panthers come into the Fort Myers Tip-Off averaging in double figures: Johnson at 10.3 per game; Champagnie at 10.8; Murphy at 11.7; and McGowens at 12.3. Champagnie, the freshman, is also leading Pitt in rebounding at 5.7 per. 

Defense

Reestablishing Pitt as a physically challenging defensive bunch appears to be on course. The Panthers are No. 24 in the nation in opponent field-goal shooting inside the 3-point arc at just 40.2 percent. The Panthers are also generating turnovers on nearly one-quarter of all defensive possessions. 

Credit some of that defensive greediness to Johnson and McGowens, both of whom average better than a steal per game. Johnson’s ability to pressure K-State point guard Cartier Diarra, averaging three turnovers per game, could be a key factor in Monday’s matchup. 

Kansas State Wildcats At A Glance

Kansas State’s 2018-19 was, on the whole, wildly successful. The Wildcats split the regular-season set with rival Kansas, contributing to the end of the Jayhawks’ stranglehold on the Big 12 championship. 

K-State also beat a Texas Tech team that reached the National Championship Game. 

Point & Shoot #KStateMBB ? @FTMyersTipOff pic.twitter.com/sanvfXd2PS

— K-State Men's Basketball (@KStateMBB) November 24, 2019

However, a 1^st Round loss to UC Irvine soured what was otherwise a benchmark campaign under Weber. The loss of three prominent starters cast some initial uncertainty on the 2019-20 season, but veteran Xavier Sneed’s decision to hold off on the NBA draft provides K-State a proven cornerstone. 

Names To Know

Xavier Sneed was the only Wildcat chosen to the Preseason All-Big 12 Team, and it’s a deserved honor. The tenacious Sneed’s continuously improved his offensive repertoire in his time in Manhattan, and thus far into 2019-20, is averaging 16 points per game. 

Fellow Cartier Diarra has taken on a heightened workload and responded with an impressive combo game at point guard. Makol Mawien, an All-Big 12 Tournament performer in 2018, is taking over the post role previously manned expertly by Dean Wade. 

Offense

Sneed’s ability to attack the rim and a still-improving jump shot set the tone for K-State, but Diarra runs the show. He’s averaging more than 12 points and just under seven assists per game, and is No. 119 among all Div. I players in percentage of possessions going through him. 

Diarra’s also No. 2 in the entire country in assist rate, not far off the mark Ja Morant set as the nation’s leader in 2018-19. 

An issue for K-State before last season was its long-range shooting, and it’s gotten no better in 2019-20. The wildcats are hitting just 25.6 percent of their attempts from behind the arc through four games. Pitt may consider playing more zone in an effort to force the Wildcats into more outside attempts.  

Defense

Weber’s teams have long made their bones on the defensive side of the ball. And even without lockdown defender Barry Brown, who averaged two steals per game a season ago, K-State remains one of the stingiest defensive teams in the country. 

The Wildcats rank eighth nationally in both adjusted defensive efficiency and opponent turnover percentage. Sneed is generating two steals per game, and Diarra is right behind with 1.8. Levi Stockard III and Dajuan Godron both average a steal per game, and Mike McGuirl has 1.5. 

Mawien has contributed to the defensive effort, taking over the rim-protector role Wade manned a season ago.