4 takeaways from Pitino's UVA preview

Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino spoke on a wide range of topics during Friday's press conference previewing his team's 6:30 p.m. Saturday matchup against Virginia at the KFC Yum! Center.

Here are three quick takeaways from the Q&A:

A tweak? Last season, UK coach John Calipari introduced "The Tweak" that sent UK fans in a tizzy and UK writers on a 10,000-word chase to figure out what it was. Pitino on Friday didn't quite have a name or brand for it like Cal, but he still introduced a similar concept. The jury's out on if it's gamesmanship or if U of L actually changes anything.

Louisville, he said, is going to simplify its defensive schemes ahead of the postseason and move away from his complex 2-3 matchup zone that requires more communication, play diagnosis and activity than this current team can produce. He didn't say exactly what they would do differently, but he insisted it'd be there.

"I made up my mind. I've thrown up my hands," Pitino said. "Even though it's late in the year, I'm dramatically going to change our system. I've only got a couple days to do it going into the tournament, but ... when Chris Jones left, a big part of our defense left. Our matchup zone the last four years has confused people. It's confused people on what to run, how to execute, how to handle the changes, and this team, with Chris out, just doesn't play it well. It's based on communication. It's based on knowing the other team's offense. It's based on knowing when you change on the fly. This group doesn't grasp it, so we're going to go away from it and, what coaches call, dumb it down a little bit going into the tournament.

"I think it'll help us in the long run ... It's not going to make a difference in this game. This is the one team that doesn't care what you (do) -- they ran their man offense against us last time. It's not going to change dramatically for them."

Honoring Blackshear and Harrell: Pitino did get a bit emotional in discussing 6-foot-5 senior Wayne Blackshear and 6-8 junior Montrezl Harrell, the two players who U of L will honor as part of Saturday's senior day ceremony.

"Wayne is one of the nicest young men ... that I've ever coached," Pitino said. "He's nice to everybody. He never has a bad day. He's a gentlemen at all times. He's been a true credit to coach. These two players -- Montrezl and Wayne -- are the last remnants of the championship team. It's over. There's nobody left from the championship team. We're going to miss these guys. They're part of three straight conference tournament championships and multiple league championships and the most wins in college basketball the last three years."

Louisville won't have anything for sophomore Terry Rozier, who may leave school early for the NBA draft after this season, because the program doesn't recognize sophomores, Pitino said.

"We do make an exception for a junior," he said.

Behind-the-scenes improvement? Pitino said Friday that the two freshmen who have improved the most this season are two of the guys who play the least: Matz Stockman and Jaylen Johnson. The rest of us, Pitino said, can see the progress in Quentin Snider, Shaqquan Aaron, Anas Mahmoud and Chinanu Onuaku because they play more in games.

"Like I said to Matz -- you don't see it because I never put him into games -- this young man's going to be a terrific basketball player," Pitino said. "He can run well. He's got long arms. He can jump out of the gym. He's developing really, really nicely. But I just said to him, 'Something's bothering me about you ... You just don't get things right away.'"

Stockman told Pitino that he struggles with the terminology that the staff and American players use, and that he is embarrassed to ask clarifying questions.

"I said, 'Don't be embarrassed,'" Pitino said. "Sometimes you don't realize with foreign players -- you take it for granted ... Right now, you see that Anas, Q, sometimes Shaqquan are playing the best of the freshmen. Actually if you looked at practice, Jaylen and Matz have made the most improvement of the freshmen. They're all going to be very, very good, but they're all somewhat timid freshmen. That's been our struggle this year."

Pitino on Boeheim and Syracuse: The NCAA on Friday announced its findings and disciplinary measures taken after its investigation of the school's athletics program. Syracuse basketball took the biggest hit. The NCAA vacated 108 wins from coach Jim Boeheim's tenure at Syracuse and imposed scholarship reductions and a nine-game suspension for Boeheim next season. Pitino took one of his first assistant coaching jobs under Boeheim and has stayed close with him throughout their coaching careers.

"You don't like to see any friend have tough times," Pitino said. "I know Jim -- he's a pretty tough guy and he'll get through it ... I think any time a coach is taken away from his team for nine games, and any time you vacate (108) games -- that's significant to me. I feel bad for Jim, obviously. He'll get through it ... Hopefully it'll make Syracuse better and stronger in the long run."