Pitt won Saturday at Syracuse, which is not particularly surprising because beating the Orange is nearly routine for the Panthers under coach Jamie Dixon.
The Panthers have won four games in a row against the Orange, and Dixon is 14-6 against them, 7-2 at Carrier Dome. You might say Syracuse brings out the best in Pitt, or, perhaps, it is just a favorable matchup for the Panthers.
On the other side of the spectrum is Louisville. The No. 11 Cardinals (21-6, 10-4 ACC) have won seven games in a row against the Panthers (19-7, 8-6) and are 4-1 at Petersen Events Center. The Cardinals physically manhandled the Panthers Jan. 14 at KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Ky. Pitt had trouble with Louisville’s physical nature and defensive pressure and had its lowest point total this season in a 59-41 loss.
“We need to be aggressive and on the attack at all times,” Pitt forward Jamel Artis said. “Sometimes, they deny the passing lanes. We need to know how to get open, and sometimes our sets are not going to work, so we need to know how to take them off the dribble.
“But we really have to be strong with the basketball because they are going to press us, and sometimes they are going to hack and we’re not going to get a call.”
In the past, that was Pitt’s kind of game. The fewer fouls called and the more physical the game, the more it favored the Panthers. But this team is more finesse than physical, and the Cardinals still play as if they in the old Big East Conference.
A low-scoring, physical game is the best path for the Cardinals because they aren’t explosive offensively. Only two players — graduate transfers Damion Lee (16.8 ppg) and Trey Lewis (12.1) — average in double figures in points, so Louisville relies on creating turnovers and offensive rebounds to create points.
Mike Young, who had 18 in that January loss, said the Panthers must be much more physical and not look for help from the referees or the result will be the same.
“My mindset going into every game is to go out and try to be the most physical guy on the floor,” he said. “The only thing that changes is getting the team mentally ready for Louisville because the refs, they know how they play, and they kind of let them play a little more than the usual.”
The Cardinals defense has been good this season by just about any measure — except for that of coach Rick Pitino, who has spent the season saying they aren’t good enough defensively for his tastes.
The Cardinals rank No. 7 in the NCAA scoring defense (allowing 60.8 points per game) and are eighth in field-goal percentage defense (38 percent).
In the first meeting, Pitt shot 28.6 percent from the field and 9.1 percent from 3-point range. But Dixon said that had more to do with the Panthers than anything Louisville did on defense.
“We have to take care of the ball. We had a good plan going into it, but we never got to that plan,” Dixon said. “We had some turnovers that were not planned for, we had some things happen that were hard to comprehend or hard to imagine.
“We have to take care of the basketball, and, certainly, we have to make some shots. The last game, it was just one of those days where we played poorly in a lot of ways. There were things that you certainly don’t anticipate, but we feel like we are a better team than we showed the last time we played.”
Paul Zeise: pzeise@post-gazette.com and Twitter @paulzeise. The “Paul Zeise Show” can be heard weekdays from 6-10 p.m. on 93.7 The Fan.
First Published: February 24, 2016, 5:00 a.m.
