Louisville basketball faces critical challenge at Pittsburgh

Match-ups to watch

Louisville guards vs. Pitt backcourt

The Cardinals have struggled against long, athletic opposing guards all year. While the Panthers are not Florida State or Kentucky, they were enough to give Louisville’s backcourt some trouble in their first meeting.

This time, Louisville will be on the road at the tough Peterson Event Center, and they will be facing a team in desperate need of a victory.

Louisville’s guards- whether it’s Perry, McMahon, Johnson, or Kimble– will have to do a better job of extending the defense and not allowing the Panthers to get off shots from deep.

Of late, teams have shown that Louisville is vulnerable against good outside shooting teams, and while Pitt is not a group of worldbeaters from three-point range, their size at guard could create a problem if the Cards are forced to extend as the ball goes outside.

Steven Enoch vs. Terrell Brown/ Eric Hamilton

If there’s an area where Louisville has a distinct advantage, it has to be the Cards’ bigs vs Pitt upfront.

Pitt struggles with size, length, and depth down low, and that’s where Louisville should hope to take advantage.

In their previous meeting, Louisville didn’t take advantage of the size and depth mismatch down low. Enoch and fellow frontcourt mate Malik Williams combined for 20 points and 13 rebounds to Pitt’s bigs Brown and Hamilton’s 14 and 7.

Williams and Enoch need to get the ball early and often down low and assert their dominance in a rare mismatch opportunity in conference.