Mykasa Robinson Louisville vs. Pitt 1-26-2020 Photo by William Caudill, TheCrunchZone.com

PREVIEW: #5 WBB at Pitt

Tom FarmerFebruary 23, 2020

At last, the pen-penultimate game of the regular season. The fifth-ranked Louisville women’s basketball team travels to Pittsburgh this afternoon to face Lance White and the depleted, oft-defeated Pitt Panthers. Last time out, the Cards put a walloping on ladies from the Three Rivers with an 83-49 victory at the KFC Yum! Center. The prediction for Sunday? Despite being Senior Night at Pitt, it’s a 99.9% guarantee that it will be more of the same.

Game Info:

DATE: Sun 23 Feb 2020
TIME: 2:00 p.m. EST
SITE: Petersen Events Center (Pittsburgh, PA)
WATCH: ACC Network Extra / Watch ESPN
LISTEN: 790 AM WKRD

At 1-14 in ACC play, the Panthers have managed to eek out only a single win over Wake Forest. In fact, things are so bad that it’s not worth expending a lot of effort to lay things out. Instead, you can check out the preview from January and get caught up on Pitt with the quick hits below:

After Aysia Bugg’s injury against Florida State, it looks increasingly as if her final year at Pitt is over. The sixth year grad student has really been through a lot with injuries, including blood clots, and recently penned a farewell letter to the Pitt program.
The hope is in the future for Pitt and is mostly embodied by freshman guard Dayshanette Harris. With 11.5 PPG and 2.6 assists the youngster was already demonstrating her skill earlier in the season. With the loss of Bugg, Harris is now the de facto leader. Her 27 point career-high against Boston College earned her ACC Freshman of the Week honors.
With the loss of Bugg, the only veteran in the Pitt starting lineup is junior shooting guard Gabbie Green. With the swap of Rita Igbokwe for junior Cara Judkins at the center position, the Panthers have four freshman on the floor at tip-off.
The only real question for Sunday is whether Jeff Walz hold Dana Evans and Elizabeth Balogun on the bench. If you’ll recall, this was exactly what was done against Pitt with Asia Durr in January 2019.

Game Info:

DATE: Sun 23 Feb 2020
TIME: 2:00 p.m. EST
SITE: Petersen Events Center (Pittsburgh, PA)
WATCH: ACC Network Extra / Watch ESPN
LISTEN: 790 AM WKRD

PROBABLE STARTERS:

#5 Louisville (24-3 |13-2)
G #1 Evans
G #4 Balogun
G #23 Jones
F #33 Dunham
F #21 Shook

Pittsburgh (4-22 | 1-14)
G #1 Harris
G #4 Hayford
G #12 Green
F #5 Brown
C #23 Igbokwe