Rick Pitino has a lot to learn entering the ACC

The certainty in Mick Cronin's voice was impossible to miss.

The Cincinnati basketball coach, once an assistant under University of Louisville coach Rick Pitino, knows exactly how one of his chief mentors has been spending a big chunk of the offseason before U of L starts play in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

"He won't make the mistake of just doing the things they already do and thinking that's fine," Cronin said of Pitino. "He's not sitting there thinking (moving into a new conference is) no big deal. He's thinking of everything at all times."

Everything, Cronin explained, includes new officials, new opponents, new road trips, new airports, new game environments — the list is a lengthy one.

Pitino acknowledged as much last week, knowing full well that he and his coaching staff are comfortable preparing for Duke, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh and Syracuse — the latter three being former Big East rivals and the former two being familiar U of L nonconference opponents.

The other nine ACC teams?

"They're as foreign to me as they are to you," Pitino said, with the caveat that he watched Florida State play Minnesota in the NIT last season.

"You have to watch film during the summer and get accustomed to the new players as well as their style of play."

That process has begun. The Cardinals' inaugural season in the ACC just happens to be a year in which the league features four potential top-10 teams, plus at least four other NCAA Tournament contenders. There also are intriguing teams at Virginia Tech, Miami and North Carolina State.

Pitino cited Clemson in his longer answer about future ACC opponents, saying he didn't know much about the Tigers other than that they were a tough out in last season's ACC Tournament.

This coming season the Tigers have their sights set on an NCAA Tournament appearance.

"I know he's pretty excited about the challenges of learning new teams and faces," said Pitino's son Richard, a former U of L assistant who is now the head coach at Minnesota.

Notre Dame coach Mike Brey took his program into the ACC last season. The Fighting Irish, hit by injuries and academic eligibility problems surrounding star guard Jerian Grant, labored to a 6-12 ACC record.

Brey called it "flying blind."

"I know them a little better now after one way around," he said. "The difference is the basketball IQ is very high. The skill and IQ is a high level. The big guys are good basketball players; they have a feel for the game. There's a little more of a skill level than the brute physical level we all experienced in the Big East."

Brey, Cronin and Pitino all had to adjust their programs to the slugfest style of the Big East in the past decade or so. Each had to adjust again when they switched leagues in 2013, with Cincinnati and Louisville playing last season in the American Athletic Conference.

All three said it took one run through to become familiar with opponents, and Cronin said even the second year in a new league is an uphill climb.

"It's definitely different, I'll tell you that," he said. "You just can't get an immediate feel. There's no way around that."

But, Brey said, as much as the new conference gives Pitino and his staff a new list of challenges, the Cardinals will give the other 14 ACC teams their own scouting tasks.

"They can really wear your guards out," Brey said of the Cards' trapping defense. "It's a test of your physical toughness breaking the pressure and then your mental toughness scoring in half-court.

"They're going to play their way every night. You have to adjust to them more than they adjust to you."

Reach Jeff Greer at (502) 582-4044 and follow him on Twitter @jeffgreer_CJ.