Pittsburgh @ Louisville preview
KFC Yum! Center
Last Meeting ( Jan 24, 2017 ) Louisville 106, Pittsburgh 51
Playing in its first rivalry game without former coach Rick Pitino in 16 years, Louisville got humiliated on national television 90-61 on Friday by Kentucky. Interim coach David Padgett will try to get his Cardinals refocused when an offensively challenged Pittsburgh team visits Tuesday in Louisville's ACC opener.
"Well, look, we've got 18 ACC games starting on Tuesday, so we have got to bounce back. If we don't learn from this then that's when it gets really bad,” Padgett said after the game. “You have to learn from this, but you just have to move on and get ready for Tuesday because that's going to come up." The Wildcats used a 20-6 run to close the first half and their 24-11 surge built a 67-38 lead that eventually reached 32, as the Cardinals were limited to just 35 percent shooting for the game and had their six-game winning streak stopped. Pittsburgh, which has just two active letter winners from last season’s squad, opened conference play with a 67-53 loss to Miami on Saturday as the Panthers shot 40.4 percent and committed 17 turnovers. “We are not a team that’s built right now to break a guy off on a dribble and just take a guy one-on-one," coach Kevin Stallings said. "We are not built right now to be able to throw it inside and either get a bucket or a foul or draw a double team and kick it out."
TV: 9 p.m. ET, ESPNU
ABOUT PITTSBURGH (8-6, 0-1 ACC): Shamiel Stevenson (10.4 points, 5.3 rebounds) came off the bench to lead Pitt with 16 points against the Hurricanes, Jared Wilson-Frame (12.9 points) added 13 and Parker Stewart (6.8 points) registered 12. With senior forward Ryan Luther (12.7 points, 10.1 rebounds) out for a fourth straight game, the Panthers started four freshmen for the fourth consecutive game and none of the five starters against Miami was with the program last season. Freshman point guard Marcus Carr (10.9 points, 4.1 assists) found the going a bit tougher in his first conference tilt, going scoreless on five shots in 22 minutes.
ABOUT LOUISVILLE (10-3, 0-0): Deng Adel scored 13 points and Ray Spalding and V.J. King added 12 apiece against the Wildcats. Adel, a 6-7 junior, leads three players in double figures at 15.4 points per game with point guard Quentin Snider chipping in 11.8 points and Spalding adding 10.8 with team highs of 9.6 rebounds and 1.7 steals to go with 2.2 blocks per game. Despite Saturday’s debacle, Louisville still makes it name on defense, holding opponents to 66.5 points per game, 38.4 percent shooting (21st in Division I) and 8.2 blocks (second).
TIP-INS
1. Louisville leads the all-time series 14-5 and is 6-0 against Pitt at the KFC Yum! Center.
2. Luther is one of four players in the ACC (along with Duke's Marvin Bagley III, North Carolina's Luke Maye and Notre Dame's Bonzie Colson) averaging a double-double.
3. The Cardinals swept the series in 2016-17, getting 22 points from Qentin Snider in the home triumph and a career-high 29 from Donovan Mitchell in the road win.
PREDICTION: Louisville 86, Pittsburgh 59