CARDINALS

Pitino: Bumps in the road natural for U of L

Jeff Greer

@jeffgreer_cj

Louisville head coach Rick Pitino is not happy during the second half of play against WKU.
Dec. 20, 2014

Rick Pitino knows what happens over the first three or four months of the college basketball season.

There are upsets. There are flat performances. There are the wins that prompt national-title talk.

And as his University of Louisville basketball team searches for an identity, Pitino fully understands that the fifth-ranked Cardinals will have games like Sunday's 85-76 win at Wake Forest.

Louisville (13-1) had one of its worst defensive performances of the season, which Pitino said Tuesday was "100 percent" his fault. But the Cards scratched and clawed their way to a win in their Atlantic Coast Conference debut.

On Wednesday, they take on Clemson (8-5) at 9 p.m. at the KFC Yum! Center in a game that gives the Cards another chance to sharpen their play before Saturday's much-anticipated showdown at North Carolina.

"We're taking baby steps and improving," Pitino said. "We're going to have a lot of bumps in the road, but that doesn't concern me. Bumps are part of every season."

What Pitino wants, however, is progress. He did see some on Sunday, especially in the controlled, efficient play of point guard Chris Jones, who posted 22 points and 10 assists for his first career double-double.

Freshman Shaqquan Aaron also put on display the kind of confidence and talent that made him Louisville's most heralded prospect in the 2014 signing class.

Beyond that, U of L as a team has shot 75.6 percent from the free-throw line over the past six games, a marked improvement from the first few contests of the campaign.

It's all part of that process.

"We need to, come March, become a very good basketball team," Pitino said. "The good thing with this team is that it has a very high ceiling, and a really long way to go."

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Against Clemson, which plays one of the slowest tempos of basketball in the country, Louisville will have to execute its halfcourt offense and defend the interior better than it did at Wake, Pitino said.

Part of that is finding the right matchups for Louisville's centers, something Pitino admitted he flubbed on Sunday. Freshmen Chinanu Onuaku and Anas Mahmoud and redshirt sophomore Mangok Mathiang have struggled on both ends of the floor over the past few games.

Part of it is also contesting perimeter shots and trying to turn over the Tigers, a challenge that Pitino said might be a tad difficult.

"You just have to be ready for this," he said. "You're not going to speed up teams that play like this. You have to be good in the halfcourt."

For his part, the 5-foot-10 Jones must carry over the momentum from his Wake Forest performance.

Jones was the source of plenty of fan consternation in recent weeks, particularly after his 3-of-15 shooting struggles against Kentucky.

Against Wake, Jones "single-handedly won that game and took over the game," Pitino said. He credited the simplicity to what Jones was doing: Bounce passes and lobs in traffic, smart shots and constant movement.

The performance was a product of the ongoing learning process with Jones, Pitino said. There were still a few bumps on Sunday, but the point guard's progress pleased Pitino.

"He knows, if he doesn't want to learn more, he'll sit," Pitino said, laughing.

There's no better player than Jones to illustrate the larger developmental process that Louisville's undergoing. He seemed to have found his best basketball identity on Sunday, but he still has a way to go.

So does Louisville.

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

TODAY'S GAME

CLEMSON AT NO. 5 LOUISVILLE

9 p.m., KFC Yum! Center

TV: WAVE-3 Radio: WHAS-840