Pitt pummeled by Louisville in historic home loss

Stephen Thompson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Jan 17, 2026

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PITTSBURGH — Before the two programs had made four combined coaching changes, Louisville rewrote the Pitt record books with a 106-51 victory at the Petersen Events Center on Jan. 24, 2017. For nearly a decade, that game stood alone as the worst home loss in Pitt men’s basketball history, a low watermark for the already disastrous Kevin Stallings era in Pittsburgh. The 2026 Cardinals looked well on their way to resetting that record on Saturday night.

Pitt (8-10, 1-4 ACC) recovered only enough to make it the second-worst margin of defeat in a conference game in program history instead of the worst, but still added another ugly blemish to the program’s history books with a 100-59 loss at the hands of Louisville (13-5, 3-3 ACC) in Pittsburgh. Louisville started the game on a 13-0 run, held Pitt to single digit points for 14:15 of game time and never allowed its opponent to get closer than 30 after the 3:00 mark of the first half.

Louisville pressured the ball on every touch and Pitt’s discomfort was apparent from the very first possession. Cardinals guards forced three turnovers on Pitt’s first four possessions and turned them into a quick 10 points on the other end. On the rare occasion Pitt was able to squeeze the ball into the paint, they either missed a look at the rim or were fouled and missed more free throws. Pitt started the game by making two of its first 18 field goal attempts and didn’t make a two-pointer until there was 3:15 left in the first half.

Despite missing a dozen shots before the eight minute mark of the first half, the Panthers corralled only two offensive rebounds, which netted them only one point. In the face of suffocating ball pressure, Pitt’s players didn’t move their bodies or the ball enough to make their opponents sweat.

Without superstar freshman Mikel Brown Jr. in the lineup, Louisville had been shooting only 29.3% from 3-point range over the last seven games. But even as Brown missed his eighth game in a row, depriving the Cardinals of reliable scoring and playmaking, they created open shots with alarming ease and frequency.

Louisville played the game at their pace, getting up and down the floor with ease and unleashing a hail of 3-pointers — some contested, but most while standing open. Isaac McKneely, the transfer from Virginia, made his first three looks from beyond the arc. Aly Khalifa, using a quick trigger, made three triples of his own during the first 20 minutes and Adrian Wooley chipped in two himself while J’Vonne Hadley, Ryan Conwell and Kobe Rodgers each added one a piece.

Louisville made 11 of 19 3-point attempts in the first half and didn’t cool off in the second, finishing with 15 made 3-pointers, the most by an opponent at Petersen Events Center since Lafayette netted 17 during a December 2008 visit, on only 29 attempts.

The Cardinals did everything better — shoot, pass, defend, rebound and hustle — and the score reflected as much. Mere days after blowing out Georgia Tech on the road, Pitt turned in a contender for its worst game of the season and the fifth-worst loss by margin of defeat in program history.

Player of the game

Of all the dynamic offensive threats Louisville brought to the court Saturday night, leading scorer Conwell took a while to get going. In the first half, he made just three field goals and misfired on five of six 3-point attempts, but after halftime he racked up 17 of his 24 total points, which led the game, while missing only one shot. He added six rebounds and six assists to only two turnovers, helping the Cardinals cover for Brown’s absence.

Key stat

This game was over from the very beginning and less than five minutes into the opening half, Louisville had carved out another spot in the Pitt record books. After Cam Corhen threw an errant pass into the courtside seats to end Pitt’s first possession, Louisville ripped off 13 straight points to open up a 13-0 lead. 13-0 is tied for the third most unanswered points to open a game by a Pitt opponent in program history. The Panthers hadn’t fallen behind that badly that early in more than six years.

Up next

Pitt is back on the road to start next week to face a Boston College team that finally broke through for its first ACC win in nearly 11 months with an 81-73 victory in overtime over Syracuse on Saturday afternoon. The Eagles had been widely considered the worst team in the ACC this season but they are on the upswing after knocking off the Orange.

Tip off from the Conte Forum on Tuesday night is slated for 7 p.m. ET with ACC Network broadcasting the game from Chestnut Hill, Mass.

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