Scouting Report: No. 17 Pittsburgh @ No. 6 West Virginia; Dixon expected to play

PITTSBURGH -- The Pitt men's basketball team could get a boost for its game against No. 6 West Virginia Wednesday night at 7 at the Coliseum in Morgantown, W.Va., as senior guard Jermaine Dixon is expected to return after a one-game absence.

Jermaine Dixon practiced Tuesday, the first time since he sprained his right ankle -- the same foot he broke twice before the season began -- early in the second half against St. John's at home. Pittsburgh played without Dixon Sunday and lost at South Florida, the Panthers' third in four games.

Jermaine Dixon practiced Tuesday and is expected to play at WVU Wednesday night at 7 at the WVU Coliseum.

"In our Conference, you have to play well every night, and you've got to play even better on the road to get a win,'' Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. "So, that's what we've got to do. In the last game, we didn't turn the ball over and defended better. And when you look at the numbers, we did that, we held them to under 40 percent (shooting).

"But at the end of the day, we didn't out-rebound them, and that was the difference. We know West Virginia is a very good team, and we obviously have to rebound better. That was our emphasis after the last game, because we got out-rebounded. We really believed that we needed to go down there and rebound well, and we didn't.''

If Jermaine Dixon can't play, that means more minutes for redshirt freshman point guard Travon Woodall and senior guard Chase Adams. They each missed a shot and did not score. Woodall fouled out after 17 minutes, while Adams played 11. Neither had an assist, either, while Woodall had one turnover and Adams had two. So, it wasn't good and not even close to filling in for Dixon.

"With injuries and foul trouble it's difficult to figure out,'' Coach Dixon said. "(But) we've got the guys, so all we need to do is play better.''

Pitt will be tested in the second half of the Big East schedule with two games in 10 days against the Mountaineers, getting a return engagement Feb. 12 at 9 p.m. at the Petersen Events Center, and home games with Seton Hall Saturday at 6 p.m. and Robert Morris Monday at 8.

The final six Big East regular-season games for Pitt could be even more difficult, but Coach Dixon and the Panthers are concentrating on the first one with WVU. And the toughest matchup on the Mountaineers is Da'Sean Butler, who leads with 16.5 points and 6.3 rebounds per game.

"He's very talented, and we know a lot about him,'' Coach Dixon said. "We recruited him out of high school, and he was on the USA team that we practiced and played against over the summer. So, I spent a couple weeks with him there when he was on the under-23 team.