Rick Pitino on Cards: 'At 15-3, I'm ecstatic'

The University of Louisville basketball team is 15-3 with losses only to powerhouse programs Kentucky, North Carolina and Duke, and the No. 10 Cardinals hold a high national ranking in their first year in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

That's all a pretty good show of success for a college basketball program in mid-January, but coach Rick Pitino senses that U of L fans probably wish the team was doing even better.

"I bet you if you polled the fans right now that they're probably not ecstatic that they're 15-3, but that's a compliment to what has been done the last three years," Pitino said Friday. "I don't take that as a negative; I take that as a compliment."

During a news conference to preview Sunday's 4 p.m. game at Pittsburgh, Pitino said it's only normal that the Cards' immense success since the 2011-12 season – a nation-leading 111 victories, a 2012 Final Four, a 2013 national title and a 2014 Sweet 16 appearance – has caused fans to raise the bar for what U of L should accomplish year in and out.

The Cards' current sixth-place position in the ACC standings and their not-so-overwhelming offensive prowess might not meet the new standards of U of L fans.

"But you do have a period where you must reload, rebuild, improve, teach new people the culture that you've built the last three years, and that's what we're going through," Pitino said. "Nobody can stay away from that. You're always going to have that period, and we're going through that now with six new players. But I'm not disappointed.

"… At 15-3, I'm ecstatic."

Pitino said that while breaking in a big freshman class that has promise but so far has been "very average," U of L has achieved quality wins against Indiana, Ohio State and Western Kentucky. The Cards' only "poor games" were the home losses to No. 1 UK (58-50) and No. 4 Duke (63-52) in which U of L's offense was fairly dismal. And to that, the coach said, the Wildcats and Blue Devils deserve credit for playing good defense.

Other than taking – and missing – a few too many contested shots, Pitino thought U of L found some open looks against Duke's zone defense. The Cards just didn't make them and finished 18 of 61 (29.5 percent) from the field, including 4 of 25 on threes.

Pitino said the only aspect of Saturday's loss that really disappointed him was that U of L's Mangok Mathiang did a poor job keeping Blue Devils center Jahlil Okafor (18 points) from getting the ball where he wanted near the basket. The Cards had worked hard in practice to prevent just that.

Otherwise and all told, the coach seems pleased with U of L's progress as it moves deeper into ACC play.

"I told you from Day 1 we're going to have a lot of bumps in the road, and right now, it's been surprisingly good at 15-3," he said.

Following the Duke loss, the Cards are looking for some mojo by growing "rally beards," as they did last year, and Pitino was working on a few days of salt-and-pepper scruff on Friday. They'll test the no-shave look against Pitt, a physical team whose home arena was always noisy when the Cards visited for Big East games.

The schedule stays tough after that, and the coach said "we've got a lot of bumps that lie ahead" against other ACC foes.

"But this team is getting better and that's what I look for, improvement," he said. "They're getting better. At all phases of the game, they're getting better. It's just they're taking baby steps."

Steve Jones can be reached at (502) 582-7176 and followed on Twitter at @SteveJones_CJ.