Cards know Pitt is hungry for marquee win
Through the first month of Atlantic Coast Conference play, the University of Louisville basketball team has played four games against three of the other four league title contenders and gotten a pretty good idea of where it stands in the race for the ACC regular-season crown.
In three of its next four games, U of L will play home contests against teams that desperately need big wins in the build-up to the NCAA tournament's Selection Sunday on March 15. Wednesday's 8 p.m. tip-off at the KFC Yum! Center against Pittsburgh is one of them.
RELATED |TV info, Vegas spread, story lines for U of L-Pitt
Pitt (16-8, 5-5 in the ACC) doesn't quite have the resume right now of an NCAA tournament team, but the Panthers' recent wins over Notre Dame and Syracuse have them surging at the right time and back on the tournament radar. Their meeting with U of L gives them another shot at a signature victory.
Ninth-ranked U of L (19-4, 7-3 in the ACC) is aware of that. Even in a season full of frustration for coach Rick Pitino, he is confident his players understand why Wednesday's game means so much to Pitt.
"I think the good thing is our guys know," Pitino said. "The good thing about our basketball team is their attention span is not great but they're fierce, fierce competitors. That's the good thing.
"In every team you have good and bad. You try to make them focus better. The good thing is they're fierce competitors who play with a lot of pride and they don't like being humiliated."
RELATED |Pitino talks Pitt, vomiting and more
The last time the teams met, Louisville shot 70.8 percent in the first half and held off a second-half Pitt rally to win 80-68 on Jan. 25 in Pittsburgh. Guards Chris Jones and Terry Rozier combined for 43 points, 15 assists and 10 rebounds, and All-American forward Montrezl Harrell added 18 points and seven rebounds.
Pitt struggled on offense, making just 22 of 59 from the field despite dishing out 18 assists and grabbing 17 offensive rebounds.
But in the short two-week span since that game, Pitt has made signifcant improvements, Pitino said. The Panthers are shooting better during their current three-game winning streak -- 55.1 percent on 2-pointers and 37.8 percent from 3 -- and taking care of the ball, dishing out 68 assists against 25 turnovers.
In wins against Bryant, Notre Dame and Syracuse, Pitt looked nothing like the team that struggled against Louisville and followed that loss up with a shocking defeat at Virginia Tech. Starting forwards Michael Young and Jamel Artis have averaged a combined 37 points and 17 rebounds during the three-game streak.
"They're just executing their offense better," Pitino said. "They're a good midrange shooting team like Virginia. Their forwards are playing terrific."
Story continues after video
Yet Pitino stressed the importance of games like this for his team, too. Not only is Louisville working on ways to improve as the NCAA tournament fast approaches, it's also angling for a double bye in the ACC tournament.
If Louisville can finish in the top four of the ACC -- and it'll be a tight race the rest of the season -- it can avoid a Wednesday game in the conference tournament.
"I just think there are so many games that happen in a short period of time that the double bye is good because it gets you to really focus in on the game plan at hand and who you're going to play," Pitino said.
"It gives you a little preparation time, which this team needs more than anything else."
U of L won't get much prep time once this current stretch of six games in less than three weeks begins. After Pitt, U of L only has one four-day break between games the rest of the season.
"We've just got to get our guys to understand that every team is different and cannot be played the same way," Pitino said. "When our guys come to that realization ... the better we'll become."
Reach U of L beat writer Jeff Greer at (502) 582-4044 and follow him on Twitter (@jeffgreer_cj).