Pitt at Louisville Takeaways: Panther Bench Erases Slow Start
PITTSBURGH -- The Pitt Panthers ended a three-game stretch all against ACC opponents on the road with an emphatic, 75-54 victory over Louisville - their first road win over the Cardinals since 2006.
It started slow and took some different faces, but Pitt took care of business against an overwhelmed Louisville team. The bench got things started, then Greg Elliot and Jamarius Burton took control as the Panthers cruised to their sixth ACC victory of the season.
Yes, Louisville is That Bad
The metrics have been recited ad nauseam, but they are worth repeating. Louisville entered this game 282nd in KenPom - 42 spots removed from the nearest high major team - and likely falling after a loss to the Panthers. They are 305th in offense, 233rd in defense and 288th in luck against the 37th most-difficult schedule in America. Their contemporaries in the efficiency rankings were 7-12 Bucknell, 5-14 Northern Arizona and 6-11 Western Michigan.
The Cardinals looked every bit as bad on the court as they did on paper. They did not communicate and played sloppy basketball. Pitt played far from their best game and won by 21. Louisville surrendered just as much as the Panthers earned. There is definitely some talent on that team but they have yet to figure out how to talk and play together.
Reserves Erase Slow Start
The Cardinals used a 7-0 run to open up a 14-10 lead midway through the first half. Entering the second media timeout of the game, Blake Hinson had picked up his second foul and was relegated to the bench for the remainder of the half. The Panthers looked to their bench - namely, Nike Sibande, Nate Santos and Guillermo Diaz-Graham - to right the ship.
That trio did more than keep Pitt afloat - they powered their team to a 19-2 run over 3:43 that put them ahead by 13. The Panthers took that lead and never looked back, maintaining at least a six-point edge for the remainder of the game.
Those three bench players hit seven of 10 attempts from the field and scored 20 of the Panthers' first 27 points. Their defensive effort was outstanding as well and helped Pitt find easy buckets in transition. With the starters struggling, they put this team's improved depth on display.
Rebounding Issues Persist
Louisville made it a competitive game for seven minutes, thanks to their offensive rebounding. The Cardinals took advantage of Pitt's most glaring weakness to score six of their first 14 points on second chances while shutting their opponents out in that category.
Pitt did not win the rebounding battle and won for just the fourth time this year. Nine times they have either trailed or tied their opponents in rebounding at the buzzer and five times, they have lost. The Panthers were able to force 17 turnovers and score 25 points off those takeaways, but that is not a sustainable strategy.
The Panthers got away with one against an inferior opponent in Louisville, but that is not a sustainable strategy. They can't afford to do it against better competition.
Hinson Goes Cold While Elliot Breaks Out
The Panthers’ leading scorer has been mired in what qualifies as a slump by his standards. Blake Hinson entered the Louisville game, scoring just 13.8 points per game on 35% shooting from the field. He scored just eight points on 2-11 shooting against Louisville, with seven of his attempts coming from deep. His offensive game has been mystifyingly one-dimensional - centered around long attempts from 3-point range that don't require much movement or difficult dribble moves.
Meanwhile, Greg Elliot broke out of a short slump by recording a season-high 23 points on 9-12 shooting from the field and 5-8 from deep. Elliot had been shooting 25% from 3-point range and 26.6% from the floor over his last six games but broke out in a big way against the Cardinals. With Hinson and Nelly Cummings struggling - just 3-19 from the field combined - he was essential to gaining separation from Louisville in the second half and keeping their defense honest.
Record-Setting Road Win
Since capturing seven conference victories away from home during their first full season in the league in 2013, the Panthers hadn't won more than three games against ACC foes in a single season. That is until Pitt snapped an 11-game road losing streak to Louisville to earn their fourth road win in conference play
In a season chock full of moments in which the Panthers have bucked tired, damning trends, they continue to surpass milestones that seemed insurmountable when the season began. Each one feels cathartic and it should for a program that has been mired in such disappointing mediocrity for so long.
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