U of L 85, Wake Forest 76: What we learned

The University of Louisville basketball team traveled to Winston-Salem, N.C., on Sunday and learned what Atlantic Coast Conference play will be like sometimes this season.

Yes, road games like Sunday night's 85-76 Louisville win at Wake Forest will happen. Because as much as Wake Forest has struggled in the past few years, the Demon Deacons are not USF. They are not UCF. They are not Houston.

Games like Sunday night's are exactly what were expected before the season started, before some of the ACC's preseason favorites started struggling. This was supposed to be the toughest league in the country, and some ACC coaches compared it to some of the toughest conferences in college basketball history.

So fifth-ranked Louisville (13-1) showed up, the new kids on the block in their ACC debut, and took Wake Forest's best punch. It wasn't pretty. It wasn't the defensive special for which U of L has become known in recent years.

Game Rewind:Re-live Louisville's ACC debut win at Wake

Instead, what Louisville discovered on Sunday is what its offense looks like when Chris Jones is creating shots for teammates, when an increasingly confident Shaqquan Aaron's hitting shots and when Montrezl Harrell's assertive and engaged.

Of course U of L coach Rick Pitino will be unhappy with his team's defense, which ranked second in the nation in efficiency before the game.

At one point Sunday night, Wake Forest (8-7) shot its way into the 60s in field-goal percentage. The Deacs got easy baskets in transition, and rangy forward Devin Thomas hustled in 31 points and 11 rebounds. They only turned the ball over on 17 percent of their possessions, which is nine percentage points below Louisville's defensive turnover rate this season.

Himmelsbach:Louisville's ACC membership a perfect match

But Jones, Harrell, Aaron and Terry Rozier each had their takeover moments, and Lousiville got its debut ACC win. The road gets much tougher soon, but Sunday should give U of L some confidence that it can win on the road in its new league.

Now the Cards have to just figure out how to put everything together against the Dukes, North Carolinas and Virginias of the league.

Chris Jones received the message. Louisville's 5-foot-10 senior point guard saw his minutes slashed and lost his starting job after the Flop Heard 'Round the World against Kentucky. Pitino repeatedly said in the week after the incident that "we don't do that here" at Louisville. On Friday, Pitino was certain Jones got his message about maturity, about generating offense and about being a team player. Jones responded rather emphatically, with his first double-double (22 points, 10 assists) of his college career.

Terry Rozier's importance. When Louisville's scoring guard left the game with foul trouble, it was painfully clear how important his assertiveness and confidence are to the Cards' offensive flow. He finds cracks in defenses and gets to the basket. He's hitting his open jumpers now, and he's making things easier on himself every game. When he and Jones play that well together on offense, Louisville's tough to beat.

Related:Inside Terry Rozier's offensive emergence

Shaqquan Aaron's (second) coming-out party. The first true introduction for the 6-foot-7 freshman win was a pull-up transition 3-pointer in The Game against UK. No rebounders, no problem. He rattled the triple in. On Sunday, Aaron looked like the four-star prospect Louisville thought it had when he signed. He only sees a green light on offense, and his confidence won't run low any time soon. The freshman rang up 11 critical bench points, and he helped in other areas, grabbing five rebounds and following his rotations for the most part on defense.

Still searching for a center. As good as Aaron was, U of L still doesn't really have a firm answer at center. It's only Jan. 4, so that's fine. But the answers need to come soon. Anas Mahmoud's started there the past two games, and he's looked sharp at times. He didn't have much of an impact on Sunday, and he didn't even attempt a shot. His best moments came with his interior passing -- he had three assists. To compound the issues at the 5, Chinanu Onuaku and Mangok Mathiang combined for zero points and one shot attempt. Mahmoud and Mathiang grabbed eight rebounds, but Sunday's performance from the the Cards' traditional centers made Pitino's late-game rotation of Jones, Rozier, Aaron, Blackshear and Harrell look that much better.

What's next? Louisville plays its ACC home debut against Clemson Wednesday night, a winnable game for U of L against a Tigers team that beat LSU but has struggled to find any offensive moxie this season. That first true big-name road trip (at UNC next weekend) looms large in the near future.

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