Ah, the box score. My favorite. The team definitely cruised. 9 players with 18 minutes or more and the high in minutes was Kendall with 25. That is good to read in the early games.

The Panthers looked good, very good in the opening game (hat tip to Dave in Orlando).

Five minutes remained in the game when Western Michigan assistant Cornell Mann turned to Broncos head coach Steve Hawkins and asked him if he had ever seen an offensive performance like Pitt’s on Sunday.

“I said ‘Yes, two years ago when I went to watch Illinois at Michigan State,’ ” Hawkins said after the No. 5 Pitt Panthers put on an offensive clinic in an 86-67 victory over the Broncos here in the inaugural Maggie Dixon Classic, an event held to honor Pitt coach Jamie Dixon’s sister, the Army women’s coach who tragically died of a heart ailment at 28 on April 6.

Let’s keep some perspective, as nice as it is to read that. It was great that Pitt cruised and had 23 assists. It should also be noted that the team also had 17 turnovers. The turnovers are a little too high.

Hard mentally to accept that Pitt was the undercard for this day. The number in attendance was more than doubled for the women’s game later. Of course, the later game actually included the real home team at West Point.

Western Michigan, despite losing by 19 was not that unhappy with their performance in the new offensive style. And a solid effort.

“I thought we really battled hard in second half despite the score at halftime,” said sophomore Derek Drews, who led the Broncos with 13 points. “Pitt is probably the best team we’ll play all year and hopefully, at the end of the season, we’ll have a chance to play a team of that caliber again. (Our) hat’s off to Pitt. They came out and had a good run in the first half, and there’s not much you can do about it.”

…

[WMU Head Coach Sean Hawkins said,] “We didn’t play in front of 150 people and we didn’t play a Division III school. We were playing against a top-five team in the country and they played like it. And I was very pleased with the way our kids battled and competed throughout the day. Just too much Pitt.”

A very good start to the season.