Pitt Vs. Louisville Preview: Everything You Need to Know

Pitt traveled out to Louisville, Kentucky on Friday in preparation for its next game, a 12 p.m. tip off against the Louisville Cardinals.

Let’s dive into the preview for this one.

PITT’S OUTLOOK

Pitt is now 9-5 (0-3 ACC) after losing to No. 8 North Carolina at home on Tuesday. While a loss to a top-ten team is never going to kill your season, Tuesday’s game dropped the Panthers to 0-3 in league play, and with two games against Duke and one against Syracuse in the near future, this could make for a really rough start to the ACC slate if Pitt doesn’t turn things around quickly.

But before the Panthers move onto those three games, they will have to take care of Louisville.

LOUISVILLE CARDINALS (5-8, 0-2 ACC)

HEAD COACH

Kenny Payne (2nd Season)

Payne’s Cardinals went an abysmal 4-28 last year. While they have already surpassed last year’s win total, things aren’t looking too bright for the struggling program. This year has been a roller coaster already, with bad losses to mid-major programs, off-court unfortunate news, and more.

LEADING SCORERS

#55 Skyy Clark – Guard

An Illinois transfer, Clark is leading the Cardinals in scoring this year. He is shooting 39.4% from the field and 28.8% from three, and averaging 15.2 points per game. Clark leads the team in turnovers with 38 and is a 76.5% free-throw shooter.

#22 Tre White – Wing

White transferred in from USC and has had a solid year for the Cardinals, averaging more than 12 points and six rebounds per game.

#0 Mike James – Wing

James had a great year last season for the Cardinals, and is back at it this year averaging 12 points and six rebounds per contest.

FAMILIAR NAME IN THE BACKCOURT

Former Pitt target Ty-Laur Johnson is in the midst of his freshman season with Louisville. Johnson took an official visit to Pitt during the weekend of the Backyard Brawl football game last year as a senior in high school. However, after Pitt received a commitment from Jaland Lowe shortly after, it appeared as though both sides moved on.

Johnson has started four games for the Cardinals, averaging 8.1 points per game on 36% from the field and 21% from three.

TEAM STATS

Louisville has hit 41.8% of its field-goal attempts this year, including 28.4% of its threes. The team has just two players shooting over 33% from three-point range this season. In addition, the Tar Heels are averaging 37.5 rebounds per game, as well as 10.9 assists, 5.5 steals, and 3.1 blocks per game.

After the loss to North Carolina, the Panthers’ team stats, especially offensively, have decreased all over. Pitt is now shooting 43.6% from the field, including 33.7% from three. The Panthers are averaging 42.1 rebounds, 14.9 assists, 6.5 steals, 9.9 turnovers, and 5.2 blocks per game as a team.

METRICS

Pitt is ranked No. 53 (eight spots down after loss to UNC) in KenPom.com’s ratings, and No. 50 in the NET rankings (down nine spots). Louisville is ranked No. 204 in Kenpom.com’s rankings, and No. 267 in the NCAA NET Rankings.

GAME TIME

Pitt Vs. Louisville will start at 12 p.m. est on Saturday, Jan. 6.

SPREAD

Pitt is favored by 7.5 points as of Friday night at 6 p.m., according to DraftKings Sportsbook. The over/under is hovering around 143.5 points.

TV

You can find Saturday’s game on The CW.