In a location steeped in history that was once a Cold War safe haven for U.S. congressmen and attended by 28 presidents, Pitt will have a chance to open eyes to the college basketball landscape on Sunday.

The Panthers will play No. 19 Wisconsin in the Greenbrier Tipoff championship in White Sulfur Springs, W.Va. A win would give Pitt its first 7-0 start since 2013, its first season in the ACC. The Badgers hold a 12-7 all-time lead over Pitt, including the most recent meeting, a 47-43 win at Wisconsin in the 2016 NCAA Tournament. It was Jamie Dixon’s last game as Pitt’s coach.

Wisconsin (6-0) will be Pitt’s toughest opponent until it visits No. 12 Duke on Jan. 7.

The Badgers have defeated two Big 12 opponents in the non-conference slate: Arizona, 103-88, and UCF, 86-70, the latter in the second game of the Greenbrier doubleheader Friday.

John Tonje, a 6-foot-2 graduate guard, leads Wisconsin with an average of 21.3 points per game. He previously played at Missouri and Colorado State. Troubled by injuries last season, he did not play against Pitt when Missouri visited the Petersen Events Center.

Tonje is an accurate shooter this season, anywhere on the field:

• Free throw line, 50 of 53, 94.3%

• 3-point line, 12 of 27, 44.4%

• From the field, 33 of 62, 53.2%

The game will feature Pitt’s fastest turnaround this season. Tipoff is 5:30 p.m., just about 48 hours after the Panthers defeated LSU 74-63 on Friday. Assistant coach Milan Brown hopes it won’t be Pitt’s first game with a one-day break.

“Knock on wood and hopefully this happens,” Brown said during the postgame show on 93.7 FM. “It’s like the NCAA tournament. You’re playing a game. You have a day off. You are playing a game.”

The Greenbrier’s basketball court is more ballroom than gymnasium, with fans sitting closer to the players than most places.

“They really gave us energy, especially in the second half,” Pitt coach Jeff Capel said after the Panthers recovered from their first halftime deficit of the season.

Capel used just eight players in the win, with guards Ishmael Leggett and Jaland Lowe playing a combined five seconds. Cam Corhen and Guillermo Diaz Graham were on the field for 36 and 32 minutes respectively.

Leggett and Lowe are Pitt’s top scorers, averaging 18.2 and 15 points per game.

Next

Pitt, which has won all six of its games by double digits, continues its power conference road tour Friday in Columbus, Ohio, at Ohio State before traveling to Starkville, Miss., to face Mississippi State on Dec. 4 and Blacksburg, Virginia. , on Dec. 7 in its ACC opener against Virginia Tech.

A piece of history

Capel set aside some of its time at Greenbrier so players could tour the large underground nuclear bunker built in 1958 on the orders of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Eisenhower visited during World War II when the facility was used as a hospital for wounded soldiers.

Designed to house all 535 members of Congress in the event of a national emergency, its existence was secret for 34 years until a 1992 Washington Post story. The government immediately moved the bunker outside after the Post story used.