CARDINALS

3 quick thoughts from Pitino's tourney preview

Jeff Greer

Louisville Courier Journal

Louisville's Rick Pitino was not happy by the delay as the refs reviewed a play.
Feb. 21, 2015

Before Louisville basketball leaves for Seattle and the NCAA tournament, Rick Pitino chatted with the local media for about 30 minutes.

He was loose and engaging, though there was also a significant level of "just get past the first round and then I'll be OK" feeling, too. He spoke at length about what he loves about the NCAA tournament, sharing a few of his favorite memories, and he also had some thoughts on Kentucky and this year's field. We'll get to all that in the transcript.

Anyway, three quick things from his press conference -- and then later I'll expand more on his comments about Louisville (24-8) being happy with its 4 seed and heading out west.

No "I Hate Christian Laettner" appearance: Pitino was obviously UK's head coach in the famous Elite 8 game in the 1992 NCAA tournament -- the one where Duke's Christian Laettner splashed a turnaround jump shot at the buzzer to stun Pitino's Wildcats.

The moment is etched in college basketball history and the game is considered the best college hoops game of all-time. For Pitino, it was a heartbreaking loss, and he's made countless jokes about it even just this season, including one after the Virginia game, in which he made sure to guard the inbounds man on VIrginia's last-gasp play.

On Tuesday, Pitino said someone involved with the production of the 30 for 30 series documentary "I Hate Christian Laettner" called him and asked to be interviewed for it. But Pitino said no.

"Because I don't hate Christian Laettner," he said.

Jaylen Johnson and "going small": Don't expect Louisville to play a smaller lineup against UC-Irvine, not with the Anteaters rotating 7-6, 7-2 and 6-10 guys in the middle. But Pitino did say that the Cards have experimented the past few days with 6-9 freshman Jaylen Johnson playing alongside 6-8 forward Montrezl Harrell for a bit of a different look.

Johnson, Pitino said, has vastly improved this season and is finally in shape. Who knows if we'll see them actually use that lineup in a game -- Pitino sort of downplayed that -- but I'd think we could see it if Louisville plays Northern Iowa and/or Villanova at some point.

"I like the way Jaylen's playing -- I don't necessarily like (Johnson and Harrell) as a combination," Pitino said. "He's been very active in practice. Jaylen and Matz (Stockman) have improved the most of the freshmen, but they also had the farthest to come.

"I just think (Johnson) has never been in great shape in his life, and he's finally getting into shape."

Louisville's team chemistry: Pitino said his team has gotten along "great" this season, especially in more recent weeks, and that Louisville is playing good basketball heading into the NCAA tournament.

"It's great now," Pitino said. "They had to get to know each other. I had to cut out the trash talking, had to cut out the belittling of young players."

Follow U of L hoops writer Jeff Greer on Twitter (@jeffgreer_cj).