CARDINALS

Pitino: U of L's centers, freshmen improving

Jeff Greer
@jeffgreer_cj
Louisville's Montrezl Harrell and Mangok Mathiang (#12) celebrate during a big comeback against North Carolina. 
Jan. 31, 2015

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – -- It's no secret that the University of Louisville basketball team isn't getting a whole lot of production from its two primary centers.

In U of L's 63-55 win at Miami on Tuesday, centers Mangok Mathiang and Chinanu Onuaku played 36 combined minutes. They attempted two shots, missed both and did not score a point. They had seven fouls, six rebounds and three blocks between the two of them.

Normally that type of stat line from a top-10 team's two centers would be troubling, but it's certainly not new for Louisville, at least in conference play.

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In Louisville's nine Atlantic Coast Conference games so far, Mathiang and Onuaku have combined for 10 or more points twice, with both of those instances coming from 11-point performances by Mathiang. As a pair, they average 6.8 points, 9.4 rebounds and 1.9 blocks a game. The Miami game was the second time they both went scoreless.

But, U of L coach Rick Pitino said Tuesday, the two centers are getting better.

"Well, they're 10 fouls," Pitino said. "(But) Mangok threw a nice pass -- yeah, I am seeing a lot of improvement."

He then took that topic and expanded it to some other bench players.

"I've seen a lot of improvement in Jaylen Johnson, in Shaqquan Aaron, in Quentin Snider," Pitino said. "The only reason I didn't play them (at Miami) -- this team runs more pick-and-rolls than any team in the ACC, and those guys don't play pick-and-rolls well. They're just learning how to defend them. They're all getting a lot better. Our practices have been great."