U of L looking for offensive mojo this week

• Up next%3A No. 4 Louisville at Western Kentucky
• Noon Saturday%2C E . A. Diddle Arena%2C Bowling Green%2C Ky.
• TV%3A FS1 Radio%3A WHAS-840

After back-to-back performances that implied the University of Louisville basketball team had turned the corner on offense, Sunday's listless 68-57 win over UNC Wilmington jolted Louisville back to its frustrated feeling.

The Cardinals' big men missed their screens at the top of the lane. Wings stood around. Guards dribbled and dribbled. Shots rimmed out. And U of L coach Rick Pitino fumed on the sideline.

The postgame fury was well-chronicled, from Pitino's short press conference to team captain Montrezl Harrell's louder-than-usual locker-room interviews.

So, where does fourth-ranked U of L (9-0) go from here? The hardest work must come on halfcourt sets on offense, U of L's players said Sunday.

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The Cards made 55.4 percent of their 2-pointers in wins over FIU and Indiana and 37.2 percent from 3-point range. The numbers aren't spectacular, but they were significant improvements from the hit-and-miss-and-miss-again stats from Louisville's first six games.

They came from ball movement and spacing, from cutting and driving, from drawing fouls and offensive rebounding. And they were distant memories on Sunday night. Louisville had seven assists on 27 baskets and looked all out of sorts.

"When we pass the ball, we're a great team," senior wing Wayne Blackshear said. "When we have only seven assists, that's how it's going to be."

In the moment, it's hard for the players to truly notice all the symptoms of their stagnant offense, Blackshear said. But they'll get a heavy dose of film study this week as they go through five days of grueling practices to prepare for a Saturday trip to Western Kentucky.

The focus will, once again, be ball movement. Pitino raved about Louisville's practice last Monday before its 94-74 win over Indiana.

Several members of the New York Knicks' front office watched the workout, and Pitino said that was enough motivation for his players to hustle through their best practice yet.

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Once they got home from that trip, the practices lagged again, sophomore guard Terry Rozier said.

"You could sense we were going to have a bad game," Rozier said. "Everybody's not on the same page right now."

So that's the goal this week: Finding that spacing and ball movement again, the type of offense that led to 32 assists on 67 field goals in the back-to-back victories over FIU and Indiana.

"We didn't pass the ball like we did against Indiana," Pitino said. "We hunted points and we paid the consequences of hunting points rather than hitting the open man."

There was a clear message behind the words of Pitino and each U of L player who spoke to the media after the UNC Wilmington win. Sure, Western Kentucky and Cal State-Northridge could shock the Cards if they play like they did on Sunday night.

But the looming matchup with Kentucky and then the start of Atlantic Coast Conference play soon after that served as larger reminders that the serious part of the season is fast approaching.

As Blackshear and Rozier said Sunday night, the offense needs to find its rhythm, and fast.

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

UP NEXT

NO. 4 LOUISVILLE AT WESTERN KENTUCKY

Noon Saturday, E . A. Diddle Arena, Bowling Green, Ky.

TV: FS1 Radio: WHAS-840