Pitt defeated Louisville 75-54 on Wednesday night to improve to 13-6 on the season. The Panthers used a big first half push to gain the advantage, and steadily increased their lead throughout the game to win in Louisville for the first time since 2006.
Pitt now owns a 6-2 record in ACC play and will return to action on Saturday as they get set to host Florida State at the Petersen Events Center.
Here are three takeaways from Pitt’s win on Wednesday.
Elliott gets it going
Perhaps one of the best strengths of this 2022-23 Pitt basketball team is that they have not been totally reliant on one player this season. There have been times where one guy is seemingly going through an off night, only for another to pick up the slack. On Wednesday night it was Greg Elliott’s turn to lead the team in scoring. Elliott poured in a game-high 23 points to become Pitt’s third different high scorer over the past three games.
Elliott was 9-of-12 from the floor, and was also 5-8 from three-point range. The Marquette transfer also finished with four rebounds and two assists in 37 minutes of action. The emergence from Elliott was a welcomed sight for this Pitt team, as he has the role of being the team’s best outside shooter, but had been in a slump in recent games.
On Saturday, Elliott was just 1-of-7 from the floor against Georgia Tech. Prior to Wednesday night he had just one double digit scoring effort in his past five games. The Panthers are not a very deep team as we know, and they need all five starters to contribute.
Pitt is set to begin a pivotal three-game home stand on Saturday with Florida State. This team needs to get scoring from everywhere it can get it, and it will be huge for this team moving forward if Elliott can find his stroke on a more consistent basis.
A different kind of performance for Burton
Jamarius Burton has been brilliant for Pitt this season, and at times has carried this team on his back. Burton had been averaging 21.8 points per game over his last five games with 31 and 28-point showings mixed in there.
Burton’s ability to score has been the story for him this season, but an underrated element to his game has also been his willingness to share the basketball. Burton is averaging a career-best 4 assists per game this season, and he really displayed that ability on Wednesday. The senior guard tied a career-high with 11 assists and recorded a double-double also with 10 points.
Burton did not really try to force anything on offense and played within himself. The Cardinals took away some driving lanes on his part, but rather than forcing bad shots, he found his teammates instead. That mindset was something that the whole team took to as well. Pitt finished with 21 assists as a team on 28 made field goals.
The sign of a good player is being able to impact the game in variety of ways. Burton’s scoring was not a huge factor on Wednesday, but he still had a big hand in helping his team collect a 21-point win on the road. There is still a lot of basketball to be played this season, but Burton is showing he is an All-ACC caliber player with each passing game.
Beat the teams you are supposed to beat
Let’s not beat around the bush here, this is very likely the worst Louisville team anyone can remember. It is very possible this is going to go down as one of, if not, the worst team in the program's illustrious history. Following the loss to Pitt, the Cardinals record dropped to 2-17 on the year and extended their current losing streak to eight games.
Pitt has very little reason to apologize for the win, as they have been on the other end of it lately. This is a Pitt team trying to go in the other direction, and have managed to do just that through 19 games this season. The Panthers are finding themselves on the ‘right’ side of the bubble lately by numerous bracketology updates this week. The goal for this team is to continue to stack wins and avoid bad losses so they can remain in that postseason discussion.
Louisville would have been a bad loss for the resume, but Pitt handled business on Wednesday and won the game running away with it. Pitt also exercised some demons in the process. The Panthers were 0-10 all-time in the KFC Yum! Center and they were able to end that streak on Wednesday. In fact, Pitt hadn’t beaten the Cardinals in Louisville since 2006. It was a long time coming to be sure.
Pitt is sitting in some unchartered waters given where the program has been in the previous six seasons. The team is off to a 6-2 ACC start, their best conference start since 2014, the first season Pitt was in the league.
In order to remain in the hunt for the NCAA Tournament, Pitt needs to continue to take care of business against bad teams. The Panthers return to action against Florida State, who like Louisville, is off to a very poor start this year. The Seminoles are just 6-13 on the season, but have found a little bit of life in conference play with a 4-4 record.
Despite Florida State showing some signs of improvement lately, Pitt has to take care of business yet again on Saturday. The Panthers are 8-2 inside the Petersen Events Center this season, and with school back in session the Oakland Zoo should be back to full force creating a homecourt advantage for this team.
It’s a new feeling to think Pitt is nearing the end of January and we are discussing them not having any letdowns for their tournament resume, but they have earned that respect with the way they have played through 19 games. In order to keep themselves in the conversation, they have to continue to win the games they are supposed to, and that’s exactly what lies ahead this weekend with Florida State.
