Pittsburgh at Louisville: 2021-22 college basketball game preview, TV schedule
Louisville has the chance to start out 4-0 in ACC play. Can they get past a Pittsburgh squad that has been very competitive of late?
TV schedule: Wednesday, January 5th, 7:00 pm ET. ESPNU
Arena: KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky
The ACC overall has been underwhelming to this point in the season, with the projected bids currently in the 3-5 range at most. Outside of Duke and North Carolina, there are around 8-10 teams that at times looked like a top-4 team, including the Louisville Cardinals (9-4, 3-0).
After losing 3 of 5 heading into league play, the Cardinals had an impressive past week, beating both Wake Forest and Georgia Tech in a pair of thrilling games to be tied with Miami at the top of the ACC standings. In the victory over the Yellow Jackets, Malik Williams came up huge, going for 20 points and 10 rebounds. The 6’11 center leads the team with 11.7 ppg and 9.4 rpg, successfully coming back after missing last season with an injury.
Louisville lacks starpower but has plenty of depth, with nine players averaging between 15-30 mpg, averaging between 5.2-11.7 ppg. Noah Locke is the only other player averaging double figures and averages 35% from deep on seven attempts a game. Miami transfer Matt Cross (8.3 ppg) is the team’s 6th Man while Dre Davis, Jae’lyn Withers, and point guard Jarrod West rounds out the starting five.
Their opponents’ roster in Pittsburgh (5-8) is much more top-heavy, playing just seven guys in their 68-67 loss to Notre Dame in the final seconds. Four players combined to score 61 of those 68 points, led by John Hugley with 18 points and six rebounds, along with Jamarius Burton with 15 on 7/12 shooting. All five starters played at least 34 minutes in that game, a testament to the lack of overall depth they have.
The good news is that the Panthers recently added Ithiel Horton back to the roster after serving a two-month suspension due to an off-the-court arrest. The 6’3 guard averaged 8.7 ppg on 37% shooting from three-point range in 18 starts and adds a much-needed level of shooting and spacing for a team that ranks in the bottom-10 nationally in both attempts and makes from deep. The Cardinals aren’t a much better three-point shooting team, ranking just 277th in the country at 31%.
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This is a matchup of bigs in Williams vs Hugley, with both teams relying on them heavily on both ends of the court. Whoever gets the edge there could very well decide this battle. But with Louisville being at home combined with simply having more offensive options to score, the advantage will be with them in what should be a low-scoring affair.
Prediction: Louisville 65, Pittsburgh 60