It has gone from bad to worse for the Pittsburgh Panthers, who have lost eight of its last 10 games to fall almost completely out of the bubble picture. The good news is they have the easiest remaining schedule of all ACC teams left in the final few weeks of the regular season.
The bad news is that the next loss for the Panthers could be their last in terms of being relevant. Their next opponent is Miami (6-18, 2-11 ACC), who is tied for last place in the conference. However, with the team missing potentially multiple starters, the Panthers could be in trouble at home on Saturday. Here are the keys to the game for the Panthers.
1. Preparing to be without Lowe and Dunn
At the end of the UNC game, starting guard Damian Dunn (10 ppg) suffered an upper-body injury and is out for the season. Making matters worse, Jaland Lowe, who leads the team with 16.5 ppg and 5.3 apg, suffered a potential concussion in the last game against SMU and is likely out for this one. For a team without much depth, missing two pieces hurts but Miami is still the worst defense in the ACC. Besides needing Ishamel Legget (15.9 ppg) to likely need 20 points in this game, freshmen Brandin Cummings and Amsal Delalic will need to have good outings as well.
2. Zack Austin vs Matthew Cleveland
The main player Pitt needs to worry about on the Hurricanes side is Cleveland, a 6’7 forward who leads them with 16.8 ppg. He’s having a great run as of late, averaging 26.4 ppg in the last seven games, including a trio of 30+ point outings. Defending him at the three-spot is Austin, a 6’7 forward who is the team’s best defender. The Panthers will need him not only to guard Cleveland as well without getting in foul trouble, but he’ll need to provide some offense as well to help make up for Lowe’s absence.
3. Big games from the Diaz-Graham brothers
Even when fully healthy, Pittsburgh never had a ton of depth. It’s going to be tested in a major way in this game. So they’ll need both Jorge and Guillermo Diaz Graham to have big games on both ends. Guillermo was the lone bright spot in the SMU loss, producing 15 points and eight rebounds. If those two can make some threes on the poor Miami defense, they’ll have a good shot at getting the home win.