Pittsburgh Basketball: 3 takeaways from monumental win over Duke Blue Devils

2. Karim Coulibaly had an outstanding game against Duke

While Pittsburgh did have Champagnie back, they’re going to be going forward without freshman big man John Hugley, as he was suspended due to an arrest of felony theft charges. Although he was only averaging 15 mpg off the bench, the 6’11 forward was the only real offensive threat in the frontcourt for the team.

That leaves the minutes to be split between both Karim Coulibaly and senior center Terrell Brown. The 6’8 sophomore Coulibaly has earned Coach Jeff Capel’s trust due to his defensive ability. And he was put to work against Duke, having to guard Matthew Hurt out on the perimeter and Jalen Johnson in the frontcourt as well. The leading scorer for the Blue Devils was limited to 13 points and six rebounds in 30 minutes. He also couldn’t drive past Coulibaly or post him up too much and forced others to beat Pitt.

Coulibaly finished with six points and seven rebounds in 25 minutes played while fouling out towards the end of the game. But if he didn’t play a great game against Hurt, Duke probably takes the lead over in the second half and wins. He’s not much of an offensive threat at this point and that’s okay. His energy and “glue guy” mentality is a great pairing with Champagnie, Johnson, and Toney who can provide most of the scoring.

For teams like Pitt who might not have the more talented roster in most games, they’ll have to muck it up a bit and cause problems for the team’s opposing players. Even though the frontcourt is considered a weakness for the Panthers, Coulibaly made sure it wasn’t a strength for the opposing team. And that’s all you can ask for from him.