June 23, 2003

Notre Dame, Ind. – The Notre Dame men’s basketball team will play Connecticut, Pittsburgh and Syracuse twice (both home and away) as part of its BIG EAST Conference regular-season 16-game slate during the 2003-04 campaign.

The 14 conference members will play under a new league format this season in which every team will play each other at least once. In addition, each school will play three others on a home-and-home basis. The BIG EAST is abandoning its two seven-team divisional format of the past three seasons. Under the old system, the 14 teams were broken down into two seven-team divisions – East and West. Each school played 12 divisional contests on a home-and-home basis and four crossover opponents against teams from the other divsion (two at home and two on the road), but did not face three schools from the opposite division.

In addition to its home-and-home series with the Huskies, Panthers and Orangemen, Notre Dame’s conference home slate this season also includes matchups against Georgetown, Miami, Providence, Seton Hall and West Virginia. The Irish are scheduled for road games at Boston College, Rutgers. St. John’s, Villanova and Virginia Tech.

Dates and times of all conference games will be released at a later date.