Quick thoughts from Pitino's UNC preview

Louisville takes on UNC at 2 p.m. Saturday down in Chapel Hill, N.C., and U of L coach Rick Pitino said Friday that he'll likely switch up the Cardinals' starting lineup for their first big road test of the ACC schedule.

Here are a few takeaways from Pitino's 10-minute press conference on Friday:

Chinanu Onuaku to start. Pitino said the 6-foot-10 center will return to the starting lineup to give Louisville "more of a physical presence" inside. Onuaku's been inconsistent this season, sometimes appearing disengaged while looking sharp and aggressive on other occasions. He's started 11 games this season, but has only played 20-plus minutes twice over the past seven games. When he's on, Onuaku is an effective rebounder and shot blocker. "We're going to need that" physicality against UNC, Pitino said.

Related:U of L looking to adjust its offense vs. contrasting styles

Backups progressing. Louisville needs its bench to catch up to the starters if it wants to make a serious run at the ACC title. That means the evolution of freshmen Onuaku, Quentin Snider, Shaqquan Aaron, Jaylen Johnson and Anas Mahmoud. That second group, which also includes sophomores Anton Gill and Mangok Mathiang, finally beat the first teamers in practice, Pitino said, a first for his team. That progress is critically important, and the past 10 days of good practices have Pitino feeling more confident in his rotation, which he estimated would go about eight or nine-deep against UNC.

Lessons learned. UNC ran past Louisville 93-84 last year, and even with quite a few changes in personnel, the Cards can still take a lot from that experience, Pitino said. The biggest thing is slowing down UNC's runouts off Louisville's missed shots. The Tar Heels will leak fast-break starters up the floor and start the break quickly, which means that Louisville must do a good job of rotating its perimeter players when the ball handler drives. The guards in last year's game, Pitino said, were too slow to recognize the early break, and UNC outran the Cardinals.

Transcript:Rick Pitino's pre-UNC Q&A

Road warriors. Louisville is 46-25 in conference road games over the past nine seasons, the best mark in both the Big East and AAC. How does Louisville do it? With defense, Pitino said. "We take pride in being a good defensive team," he explained, "and you have to play good defense on the road" to win. But I'm not so sure I buy that theory entirely, at least so far this season. Here's why:

In this year's road or neutral-site games, Louisville's offense has thrived, shooting 7 percentage points better from 3-point range and 3.5 percentage points better overall than it does at home.

In this year's road or neutral-site games, Louisville's defense lags, allowing higher shooting percentages and forcing fewer turnovers. Opponents shoot 13.4 percentage points better vs. Louisville in away-from-home games, and they turn the ball over 6.6 percent less.

What do we make of all that? The most obvious answer is that Louisville has played four its fastest-paced games away from home, and that pace favors U of L's offense. The Cards got out in transition and scored on breaks. As for the drop in turnovers away from home, I think the only easy answer is probably that Louisville's four road/neutral-site opponents are among the seven best teams that the Cards have played this season, meaning they'll likely have better handlers.