U of L readies for tourney marching orders

The University of Louisville basketball team and 67 others will find out their NCAA tournament fate sometime after 6 p.m. Sunday.

The NCAA tournament selection committee, which has been compiling data and scouting teams all season, started its bracketing and seeding process on Wednesday and its decisions will be revealed over the course of the hour-long Selection Show on CBS.

For Louisville, Sunday's show is not an "if" proposition -- the Cardinals (24-8) should be a lock for the NCAA tournament field. Instead, they'll find out where they rank in the committee's eyes, where they are seeded, who they'll play and when and where they'll play.

U of L coach Rick Pitino said Friday that he and his staff and players will take in the Selection Show at a small get together with friends of the program, which has become a tradition in recent yeras.

"Well, we'll have that get together, find out who we are playing and all that, and then we'll practice right after that," Pitino said.

There are elements to the selection process that could have a significant impact on Louisville's fate. If the Cardinals have done enough, in the committee's eyes, to earn a No. 4 seed, where they'll play will depend on how highly the committee rated them.

If, for instance, Louisville is the lowest-rated No. 4 seed, there is a chance of playing far from home -- or "somewhere in the Pacific Ocean," as Pitino joked two weeks ago -- simply because teams closer to the NCAA tournament's eight opening-weekend sites will be given higher priority for favorable placement.

If Louisville receives a No. 5 seed, then all bets are off. Whichever 4 seed the Cards are paired with will be placed as close to home as possible, and Louisville will travel to that site.

BracketMatrix.com, which compiles the bracket projections of 92 different experts and averages them out, suggests U of L is in position to receive a No. 4 seed, but projecting seeds and the tournament field is not an exact science.

"Well, (ESPN's) Joe Lunardi says we're going to be a 4 seed, so I'm going to go by what he says," Pitino said Friday. "I'm not familiar with that stuff."

Inside the locker room after Thursday's loss in the ACC tournament, the players didn't seem to care much about seeding or tournament placement. They know they are going to make the field. Beyond that?

"We've just got to know that, in our minds, it's the same exact rules as (as the conference tournament)," junior forward Montrezl Harrell said.

"If you took (the UNC) loss on the road, no matter where you're at, you're going home. If you take (an NCAA tournament) loss ... that'd be the end of our college basketball season. Nobody wants to have that."

Pitino and his staff held an extensive three-hour practice on Friday, hoping to get more reps and work in for Louisville's lesser-used players. Harrell and sophomore guard Terry Rozier, who both averaged 36-plus minutes in Louisville's 19 ACC games, were given a break from the workout.

The benefit of the lengthy workout, Pitino said, was to get in another practice since the dismissal of point guard Chris Jones. He was asked if practice is better than game experience, which Louisville missed by dropping the UNC game on Thursday.

"Well, games are one thing, but the problem with games is all the guys who don't play are out of shape," he said. "We have six guys who don't play. Practice allows everyone to work. We're not going to get a great seed, but so what?"

Reach U of L beat writer Jeff Greer at (502) 582-4044 and follow him on Twitter (@jeffgreer_cj).