Hit the music!
For an optimal reading experience of this story, you might want to set the Harlem Globetrotters' theme song up in the background.
Fear not, I've got you covered below.
NCAA Tournament teams do this against the bottom of their league.
Pitt is, clearly, the former, and lowly Louisville clearly the latter. It was the Harlem Globetrotters against the Washington Generals for the majority of Tuesday's game, as the Panthers did their best Meadowlark Lemon impression on the Cardinals for a 91-57 rout inside the Petersen Events Center.
In the spirit of some seriousness, the hosts showed a new gear which will absolutely be necessary for this final month of the regular season. Everyone got involved, quite literally.
In the spirit of removed seriousness, things got to the point where Pitt was lining up crazy attempts in transition with precise ball movement, and, in a charming and positive way, playing freely ...
Ball movement at its finest ♻️
— Pitt Basketball (@Pitt_MBB) February 8, 2023
📺: @accnetwork pic.twitter.com/3OGJU3mFcc
... and it even went as far as the see Nike Sibande attempt a windmill dunk in transition, only for him to miss off the front of the rim, have a trailing Jamarius Burton clean up the rebound, and kick it back to Sibande for a converted corner 3.
Curly Neal still would have been impressed.
Those two plays were just in the first half, after which Pitt comfortably held a 20-point lead thanks do a difference in field goal percentage of 32%.
By this point of the season, this is what Louisville (3-21, 1-12) is as a program recovering from the fallout from the Rick Pitino and Chris Mack eras.
And, by this point. This is what Pitt is. A team now tied for first place in the ACC at 17-7 overall and 10-3 within the league, earning its first 10-win season within ACC play since its 11 in the 2013-'14 season, its first within the conference.
They did it with the largest margin of victory in an ACC game in school history. The previous was a 33-point win over Clemson in 2014.
"Really proud of our team's performance today after being off since last week and not having competition," Jeff Capel said. "As a coach I was really concerned, and I thought the first four minutes our defense wasn't as sharp as it needed to be, and I thought that's what it was because of. But, I thought we settled into the game after the under-16-minute timeout. I thought from that point on in the first half our defense was really good. Obviously we made shots, we shared the basketball."
After those four-ish minutes of showing some slow legs, Pitt turned the dial up to 11 out of 10. It turned out as a help that Pitt had six whole days to rest before this game, which afforded some dinged-up bodies a chance to recuperate.
"You've got to at least do something on your off day," Guillermo Diaz Graham said. "You cannot just take a whole off-day. Do some treatment or something. But it's always good to get off days, but especially when you come back, you have to come back with extra energy to recover the days you're just laying in bed."
Pitt dominated in every facet of the game. It was not close, even for those first four minutes. Pitt shot 55% from the field to Louisville's 28%. Pitt out-rebounded Louisville 37-30. Pitt got 41 points from its bench.
Five Panthers net double figures, led by a nearly underscored 15 points from Nike Sibande.
Greg Elliott made his first five attempts from the field -- four of those 3-pointers -- to finish with 14 points. Guillermo, Nelly Cummings, and Blake Hinson each posted 11. Nine of the 11 players which played for Pitt scored at least one point.
Pitt assisted on 23 of 28 made field goals. Enjoy this gem from Jorge Diaz Graham on that:
"I always say the assists are more fun, because a bucket makes happy one person, but an assist makes happy two persons," Jorge said.
Said Capel: "I'm really proud of that because, just like they said, you pass up a good shot for a better shot. We were able to make a lot of shots tonight. I think that's because the ball had energy, we shot the heck out of it, we shared it. I would like to have less turnovers than we had tonight (14), but the 23 assists were great."
MORE FROM THE GAME
• The three players which Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim alleged Pitt "bought" -- but, of course, did not -- over the offseason were combining to outscore Louisville for a portion of the second half. Elliott, Hinson, and Cummings posted a combined 31 points and had outscored the Cardinals up until a Kamari Lands 3 gave Louisville 33 points as a team with 15:51 to play.
It is worth noting that no rebuttal flashed from Pitt to Boeheim's comments. Those are likely going to be saved for Feb. 25 and kept within the Oakland Zoo once the Orange roll into the Petersen Events Center for the final home game of the season.
It was funny, in a way, to see Miami coach Jim Larrañaga pull a wad of cash out of his pocket during the Hurricanes' win over Duke on Monday. Miami and Wake Forest were the other two teams which Boeheim alleged foul play within recruiting and NIL.
Two days after Jim Boeheim said that he “bought” a team this off-season, Jim Larrañaga flashed a wad of cash before going out and beating Duke by 22 points.
— The Field of 68 (@TheFieldOf68) February 7, 2023
Probably not trolling. Likely a coincidence. Definitely hilarious. pic.twitter.com/abS3bfdw1L
I selfishly wanted to see Capel pull out a checkbook or something symbolic in the same vain. C'est la vie.
• The Diaz Graham twins each decided to throw a block party with 7,577 of their friends in attendance. They played their best collective games each as Panthers in leading Pitt to 13 blocks as a team -- five for Guillermo and four for Jorge -- while holding the Cardinals to just 16 made field goals altogether and six from within the 3-point arc. Jorge made all six of his free throws and finished with eight points.
"We work on defense every day," Guillermo said. "I think it's just really, what the guy's going to do. ... I think we all on the bench, we are all ready. We have an amazing group of guys, and we're all working every day. There's no one left behind, and everyone on the bench is ready to step up, make plays, and raise our team's energy. It's a great thing we have here."
• After beating his team by a combined margin of 166-111 in their two meetings this season, Pitt certainly has earned the respect of Louisville coach Kenny Payne.
"We've played a lot of good teams in this conference," Payne said. "Guys, I’m just here to tell you that, probably the most complete, the toughest team that we’ve faced in this conference is Pittsburgh. Tough. Fight. Can score. Can score a multitude of ways. They share the ball. They talk on defense. When one guy is down, I hear four others talking to the one that's down. ... And I watched their huddle as they huddled up after they play, and I saw what I want my guys to be. I want my guys to be tough like that, to fight like that, to be one like that. ... Out of all the teams that we’ve played, again, none better than Pittsburgh."
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE 5s
• Louisville: G El Ellis, F Mike James, F JJ Traynor, F Sydney Curry, F Jae'Lyn Withers.
• Pitt: G Nelly Cummings, G Greg Elliott, F Jamarius Burton, F Blake Hinson, C Federiko Federiko.
THE ESSENTIALS
THE INJURIES
• Out for the season: F Will Jeffress (foot), F John Hugley IV (personal).
THE SCHEDULE
• Pitt is on the road for a game at Florida State Saturday at noon in Tallahassee, Fla., and will be back at The Pete next Tuesday to oppose Boston College at 9 p.m.
THE CONTENT
• Visit the Pitt team page for more coverage from the Petersen Events Center. You can listen to the latest episode of the H2P Podcast below.