There’s little doubt that men’s basketball head coach Mike Miller picked one of the most intimidating venues for his Eastern regular season debut.

The Panthers will open their campaign on the road Saturday as they prepare to take on Xavier in the Cintas Center.

“We know we’re starting the season Saturday in a challenging environment, so we want to reach that level of intensity,” Miller said.

Saturday will begin what Miller has called the toughest opening 10-game stretch in Eastern basketball history, with seven of those games on the road.

To counter the 10,250-seat area in Cincinnati, Miller has cranked up the Lantz Arena speakers to full volume during scrimmages in practice to simulate a raucous environment.

“The preparation has been good because we’ve had 27 practices now, and we’re getting better everyday,” Miller said. “Here’s the key: if we go in there and play good basketball I know we are going to be okay. That’s it.”

Xavier has all five starters back from a 17-12 team that was snubbed from postseason play in the Musketeers’ first season under head coach Sean Miller.

“They have four players that start that are interchangeable parts,” Mike Miller said. “The versatility of their game is very hard to counter.”

The Musketeers are led by preseason first team all-Atlantic 10 Conference selection Stanley Burrell, who averaged 12 points per game last season as one of four Xavier players to average double figures.

“We are a better team than we were at the beginning of the year,” Sean Miller said. “Our goal is to continue to improve and to be a better team on Saturday.

Eastern will try to counter with Ohio Valley Conference-leading returning scorer senior Josh Gomes. Gomes was selected preseason first team all-OVC and averaged 22.0 points in the two exhibition wins over Illinois-Springfield and Olivet Nazarene, making 48.4 percent from the field.

“We can’t put it all on Josh,” Mike Miller said. “That’s not fair to him or our team. We need to bring a solid inside-outside game to compete.”

Playing with poise is something Mike Miller has talked about throughout the preseason for freshman point guard Mike Robinson.

“This game is the first step in that developmental process,” Mike Miller said. “He has to mature in a hurry.”

Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. Saturday.