CARDINALS

Quick takeaways from Rick Pitino's UVA preview

Jeff Greer

Louisville Courier Journal

University of Louisville head coach Rick Pitino reacts to his teams play against the University North Carolina during the second half of play at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky. January 31, 2015

Louisville coach Rick Pitino previewed his team's 7 p.m. Saturday game at Virginia. He spoke for a good 30 minutes or so.

Before we get into three quick takeaways from the conversation, here's a look at just how good Virginia's defense is.

And now a few hits from the press conference:

Praise for Snider. Pitino was effusive in his praise of freshman guard Quentin Snider on Thursday. That wasn't a new thing, but it was definitely more than he's said in the past about the 6-foot-1 Louisville native. Snider hasn't scored more than two points in an ACC game, and he hasn't played double-digit minutes in seven of the nine conference contests. But he's getting better every day, and his effort, Pitino said, is the reason.

"Quentin Snider has tremendous work ethic," Pitino said. "He's going to have a very good college career because he has tremendous work ethic."

And for Blackshear. The numbers aren't spectacular for 6-foot-5 wing Wayne Blackshear, though they're actually pretty solid. He's averaging 11.2 points, 4.7 rebounds and a little more than one steal and one assist per game this season. In nine ACC games, Blackshear's averages dip a bit to 8.1 points, 3.1 rebounds and fewer than one steal and one assist a game. But, Pitino said Thursday, Blackshear is having "a very good year ... He makes big plays for us defensively." Pitino later said Blackshear is primed for a big NCAA tournament because of the little things he's doing.

Dropping passes and fixing it. A smaller, less-noticeable issue that has come up this season is Louisville's younger bigs catching passes and holding firm to the ball. Freshman center Chinanu Onuaku has had that problem in particular, but it has also stretched to redshirt sophomore Mangok Mathiang, who infamously had a huge offensive rebound at UNC canceled out when he had the ball knocked out of his hands and off his leg. The drops have driven Louisville's older players, specifically Montrezl Harrell, rather crazy.

The older players "have no tolerance" for the learning process of the younger guys when it comes to dropping passes," Pitino said. Harrell has "no patience" whatsoever for Onuaku's drops. But, he added, they will improve, and he pointed to Gorgui Dieng as an example.