It’s Big Monday and we will see the Pittsburgh Panthers travel to Louisville, Kentucky to take on the Louisville Cardinals. The game is scheduled for a 7:00 pm (Eastern) start time and will be televised on ESPN. Currently the odds for the game have Louisville favored by 6.5 points while the total sits at 123.5. Check out Sportsbook Spy to see who the Public is taking on all of today's games.
Free Analysis: The Panthers have been riding a wave of momentum of late with wins in four straight contests. Their most recent victory was a 93-55 rout of DePaul on Saturday, moving the team to 17-4 overall and 5-3 in league play. The latter mark good for third place in the Big East at this point. Pittsburgh hasn't been rattled in opposing arenas this season, posting a mark of 3-1 on the road. Pittsburgh entertains Syracuse in its next contest. The 38-point margin of victory over DePaul was the largest in Big East play for the Panthers, topping a 36-point win over West Virginia on Feb. 12, 2003. Pitt had a 58-34 rebounding edge while posting a season-best for points scored. Junior guard Trey Zeigler scored a career-high 18 points off the bench and is averaging 11.3 points during Pitt’s winning streak. “We have a lot of good players, and any night anyone can lead us in scoring,” said Zeigler, who averages six points. Junior forward Talib Zanna averages a team-best 11.5 points, junior forward Lamar Patterson tallies 10.2 and senior guard Tray Woodall averages 10.1. Freshman 7-0 center Steven Adams averages a team-high 6.3 rebounds and tied his season-high with 14 boards against DePaul. The Panthers let up the sixth-fewest points per game (54.5) in the country, while holding foes to less than 40 percent shooting. Pitt has also allowed the 20th-fewest assists (9.9 pg) to foes while ranking first in the country in opponent's rebounds (27.4 pg).
Just a little more than a week ago, Louisville stood as the No. 1 team in the country. Since then however, the Cardinals have been in free fall with three straight losses, the most recent of which being a 53-51 setback against Georgetown. This is the first three-game losing streak for the Cardinals since the 2009-10 season. Louisville is still an impressive 16-4 overall, but at 4-3 in conference the Cardinals are locked in a six-way tie for fourth place in the Big East. Playing their next two games at home should help the Cards, who are 9-1 at the KFC Yum! Center this year. The normally reliable backcourt of senior Peyton Siva and junior guard Russ Smith is experiencing major issues. Siva didn’t score a single point in Saturday’s loss to Georgetown for the first time since his freshman season. Smith was pulled from the starting lineup because of a 2-of-13 shooting performance against Villanova and tallied 12 points against the Hoyas, dropping his season mark to 18.4. “I didn’t get a chance to create my own shot because there are going to be some bad shots, and coach doesn’t want that, so I’ve just got to get the offensive moving a bit,” Smith said. “At the end of the day, I know I’m going to play. And I know how good I am. I’ve proven myself already.” Junior guard Luke Hancock started in place of Smith and had 12 points.
Free Pick: I will look to take the Over in this one. This should be a physical game and I see plenty of FT’s in it, which will really help in the end. Both teams play good defense, But Louisville has allowed 70+ points in 2 of their last 3 games and they will be facing a Pitt team hat has averaged 71 ppg in their last 5 games and 65.2 ppg on the road overall. Louisville’s offense has struggled of late, but 3 of their last 5 games have been on the road And they have averaged 77.8 ppg at home. Pitt’s defense is one of the best in the Country, by they have allowed 60+ in 2 of heir last 3 games and I expect a desperate Louisville team to find away t get their offense going vs this team. Should be a close game throughout out and those FT’s at the end should net us at least 130 points in this one.
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