Sullivan | Cards find Cavaliers defense no joke

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Technically speaking, Rick Pitino was joking. When the Louisville coach said "the Tony Bennetts of the world are ruining college basketball" three weeks ago, he was engaging in humorous hyperbole at the expense of a rival.

Nobody's laughing now.

Bennett's Virginia Cavaliers are robbing basketball of its rhythm, reducing fast-break teams to a style of play that seems more like trench warfare in sneakers. The Cavaliers' renowned "pack-line" defense is so stingy, so suffocating, so intolerant of open shots that Pitino's ninth-ranked Cardinals might as well have been launching from the bottom of Thomas Jefferson's well for much of Saturday's 52-47 loss at John Paul Jones Arena.

U of L made four shots from the field in the first half — four! — and spent less time in transition than microwaved popcorn. Able to force only two turnovers in the entire game, grabbing only seven offensive rebounds, the Louisville offense consisted largely of Chris Jones and Terry Rozier trying to create off the dribble and under duress from a half-court set, frequently forcing bad shots in search of a foul.

That's a formula for frustration. Against a defense as dogged as Virginia's, it's akin to maneuvering through a mine field in a pair of clown shoes.

"Their defense is awesome," Pitino said Saturday night. "But our offense was ridiculous. We didn't run our sets. We didn't move the ball. I mean, if you're going to do that, you're going to make Virginia look like the greatest defensive team in history.

"... We played right into the monster. And the crowd."

From a shooting standpoint, the game was reminiscent of Louisville's home loss to Duke last month, but with a lesser quality of shot. Virginia entered the game leading the nation in scoring defense (50.9 points per game) and ended it with a 21-1 record and a two-game lead in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

"I didn't know they were that big," Louisville's Jones said of the Cavaliers. "They've all got grown-man bodies. I looked at their team and then I looked at our team (and thought), 'We've got to get like those guys, coming off the bench-wise.' "

What the Cavaliers do might not be pretty, but it is physical, cohesive and productive. Louisville ended the first half on a 10:31 scoring drought — the third time this season Virginia opponents had gone at least 10 minutes between points. Virginia sets up a defensive ring 16 feet from the basket and dares opponents to beat it from the perimeter.

"It's a difficult defense to go against because they have post traps coming out of nowhere for no rhyme or reason," Louisville forward Montrezl Harrell said. "Their post traps can come at any given time and they try to make you turn the ball over. But once we started running to the end of our offensive plays, we created more high-percentage shots and didn't turn the ball over."

Well, yeah, but trying to mount a comeback from a double-digit deficit against Virginia is like running in the surf. You have to expend a lot of energy to show a small amount of progress.

"We were really good defensively in the first half," Bennett said. "We were swarming and contesting. . .It was close to the best half of defense I've seen. You could hear the noise from the crowd as the shot clock went down. I'm usually so locked in, but I noticed that. We took them to late in the shot clock, we contested and we bothered."

To beat Bennett's bunch is going to require either exquisite execution or otherworldly perimeter shooting. Despite its 19-4 record, Louisville meets neither description on most nights. Few college teams do.

"First and foremost, there's a lack of great shooters anymore," Pitino said last month. "We don't concentrate enough on shooting and passing, including myself. We get so tied into stopping the other team's offense; we take away everything. Because of the technology today it helps you immensely stop the other team's offenses.

"So where we have to get better, because the dimensions of the court have not expanded, we have to take the same type of meticulous preparation at the offensive end."

Louisville shot 4-for-21 in the first half Saturday, 17-for-46 for the game, and just 3-for-14 from three-point range. The Cardinals' scoring included 22 points in the paint, 10 free throws and only two fast-break points.

No joke. And not much of a laughing matter.