PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Coming off a first ACC loss of the season, a game where they didn’t score for the last 7:59, the Panthers (12-3, 3-1) say they’ve put Duke behind them with Louisville (11-5, 4-1) at the Petersen Events Center Saturday at noon on 93.7 The Fan.
Panthers actually had three chances to cut the Blue Devils lead to single digits on Tuesday but failed, and from that point on, Duke’s scoring was unanswered.
“After the game we came together, we collectively agreed that can’t happen again and we moved on to the next opponent,” said Pitt senior guard Ishmael Leggett. “Short term memory comes into play, next play mentality and how you respond to things.”
“It’s not even basketball, it’s what life’s about is how you respond to what happened. We can’t change what’s happened but we can do our best to not have it happen in the future.”
The last time after a lopsided loss, Pitt responded with five consecutive wins.
“These young people have short memories, they are not like us coaches,” said Pitt head coach Jeff Capel. “They move on to the next play pretty quickly. We are excited. The students are back, hopefully we have a great crowd and there is energy in the building. I know Louisville will bring it. Hopefully we can make this a difficult place to play tomorrow.”
The Cardinals already have three more wins than they did all last season and that includes in ACC play even though it’s early January. It’s a Louisville team full of transfers with point guard Chucky Hepburn, who had already scored 1,103 points in three years at Wisconsin, leading the way at 15.1 points per game with 89 assists (5th in ACC) and 41 steals (leads ACC).
First-year head coach Pat Kelsey won 11 conference championships in 12 seasons as head coach at Winthrop and most recently the College of Charleston. He started his career at Wake Forest as the Director of Basketball Operations for Pittsburgh native Skip Prosser. He played for Prosser at Xavier and Skip hired him after working as an assistant coach in high school.
Pitt has a 15-game home winning streak as both teams have only one loss in conference play.
“It’s huge for our league,” Capel said. “Louisville in college basketball is a brand. It certainly helps the ACC when they are good like they are now.”
“It’s about how you respond,” Leggett said. “I feel like a loss like that really brings us together more. We got together at the next practice and determined that wasn’t Pitt basketball. From here on out we got to go out and play Pitt basketball on both sides, game in and game out.”
Panthers pregame begins at 11:30a on Saturday with the Voice of the Panthers Bill Hillgrove, Pitt great Curtis Aiken and Cale Berger on 93.7 The Fan.