How Rick Pitino coaches Montrezl Harrell
It was a rather short press conference on Thursday with Louisville coach Rick Pitino ahead of the Cards' Friday night tip-off against Marshall.
The teams start at 9:05 p.m. tomorrow night and the game will be on ESPNU.
Here are three quick thoughts from Pitino's press conference:
Coaching Montrezl Harrell. The 6-foot-8 All-American came back to school for his junior year and unveiled a far more confident jump shot. In fact, he's really confident in it. So much so that 58 percent of his shots have been 2-point jumpers or 3-pointers. It's not a bad thing so far: He's shooting 57 percent on those 2-point Js and 43 percent from 3. But Pitino doesn't want the shooting to take away from what Harrell does best, which is scoring around the basket. Last season, Harrell was a projected first-round NBA draft pick after taking 67 percent of shots "at the rim," which are layups and dunks around the basket. "I don't want him running to the perimeter on fast breaks," Pitino said. "I want him running to the rim." The coach added that he'd like Harrell to use five or six post moves a game, but beyond that, he and his staff don't push veterans too much on offense. "I give them free reign" on offense," Pitino said.
Early NCAA tournament seedings or rankings? Pitino isn't exactly a fan of the rumblings that the NCAA or CBS or someone may release pre-NCAA tournament rankings or seedings during the basketball season, just like the College Football Playoff rankings this fall. "That's a football thing," Pitino said. From there, he said the seedings aren't a huge deal during the season. I don't disagree with him: Seeding the tournament is so, so different than ranking football teams. Plus, Pitino added, that would put Joe Lunardi out of a job.
Scouting Marshall. Putting aside the usual hyperbole that comes with Pitino's scouting reports, he did stress that Marshall's spacing and occasional "five-out" offensive sets make for a tough scouting challenge for Louisville. Eight of Marshall's players have taken a 3-pointer this season (in three games). With a 33-percent 3-point shooting clip, the Thundering Herd doesn't shoot well, exactly, but they do shoot it. They don't have anyone taller than 6-9, and two of the 6-9 guys don't really play much, so when Marshall goes small, it'll be interesting to watch how Louisville's bigs guard.