Playing through foul trouble, handling a tough defense and balanced scoring – here’s a look at what stood out in Pitt’s 70-60 win over Notre Dame Saturday night.
Playing with fouls
Bub Carrington was in a rather unique position against Notre Dame:
Foul trouble
The freshman guard has piled up a lot of stats in his first year of college basketball, but one number he has kept low has been fouls. Carrington committed two fouls or fewer in 15 of Pitt’s first 20 games, but on Saturday night, he went all the way, fouling out and playing a season-low 20 minutes.
The fouls limited him to 13 minutes in the first half and just seven in the second, but the low court time didn’t put any added pressure on Carrington; if anything, he played one of his most efficient games of the season, scoring 16 points on 5-of-10 shooting, including a 3-of-6 mark from outside the arc and 3-of-4 from the free throw line.
Carrington made the most of his limited minutes. And given the fact that Pitt has won both games where he fouled out – Saturday night and the win at Duke – perhaps it’s in the Panthers’ best interests for him to get in foul trouble.
(Editor’s note: It’s not.)
Handling a tough defense
Notre Dame isn’t a great team, but the Irish have been very good on defense this season. They entered Saturday’s game allowing 65.3 points per game, good for the No. 2 defense in the ACC and No. 36 nationally, in addition to a top-50 defensive efficiency ranking according to KenPom. Notre Dame was even better in ACC play, giving up an average of 63.4 points per game against conference opponents.
On top of that, Notre Dame’s defense was holding ACC teams under 40% from the field – 39.7%, to be exact, which ranks No. 2 in the conference. And in 10 ACC games prior to Saturday, the Irish had allowed one team to get into the 70’s.
You can see where this is going.
With 70 points and a team shooting percentage of 44.9%, Pitt did as well against Notre Dame as any team in the conference has done this season. And the Panthers were particularly exceptional in the second half, scoring 42 points on 52.2% shooting.
The Irish have few wins left on their schedule, but they can defend well, and despite Pitt’s slow start, the Panthers ended up controlling the game with offense for a 10-point win.
Balanced scoring
One thing that made last season’s Pitt team so dangerous was having as many as five legitimate scoring options. Even though they didn’t all play at the same time, the threats of Nelly Cummings, Jamarius Burton, Blake Hinson, Greg Elliot and Nike Sibande gave the Panthers enough punch to be competitive in most games.
This year’s team has spent a lot of time looking to find its top options, and while it’s not five like last season, the 2023-24 Pitt roster’s primary scorers have, in fact, emerged:
Hinson, Carrington, Ishmael Leggett and Jaland Lowe
Hinson was the sure thing, the carryover piece from last season who was expected to lead the team again this year. The rest were up in the air, but their roles have been solidified.
Carrington got off to a blazing start by scoring at least 17 in each of his first four games and settled in for a steady 12-17 points more or less each night after that, but following a pair of games – Syracuse at home and Duke on the road – that saw him score a total of nine points, Carrington has been playing arguably his best basketball.
He shot 60% from the field to score 19 in the win at Georgia Tech and then bounced back from a four-point game at Miami to score a career-high 24 against Wake Forest before dropping 16 last night.
Leggett was expected to be a primary scorer, but a midseason injury limited him and caused him to miss the win at Louisville. In the last five games, though, he has played at a high level, averaging 14.6 points per game while shooting 47.4% from the floor and 47.4% from three.
And the final piece was Lowe, who has scored in double digits in five of the last six games and is averaging 13.8 points per game in those six.
On Saturday night, it all came together: Hinson scored a game-high 17, Carrington had 16, Leggett scored 12 and Lowe had 11.
That kind of balanced attack is key for this Pitt team heading into February.
