U of L has to get creative at Pitt

Last weekend, in the minutes after Louisville's home loss to Duke, sophomore guard Terry Rozier and his teammates talked little about offense.

Defense, they said, had to be the spur of their offense, creating turnovers and speeding up opponents. Turnovers lead to run-outs, and run-outs lead to easier baskets, and easier baskets lead to the fullcourt press that makes Louisville (15-3) so tough.

Getting into that cycle can help offset 10th-ranked Louisville's shooting problems, which have become a serious problem in slower-paced games that involve fewer possessions.

"If we play our defense," Rozier said, "it'll clean up for our offense. If we're not getting stops, it slows the whole game down."

U of L-Pitt pregame info:TV info, series history, projected starters, story lines

Games like Sunday's 4 p.m. tip-off at Pittsburgh won't help Louisville pick up the pace. The Atlantic Coast Conference has five of the slowest-paced teams in the country, and Pitt is one of them.

The Panthers (13-6) play a halfcourt, slow-it-down style that resembles that of Clemson or Virginia, and they won't want to run with Louisville.

"There's a lot of slow basketball (in the ACC)," U of L coach Rick Pitino said. "Sometimes you can't do a lot whole lot about it."

The numbers support Pitino's theory on Friday that his current team isn't scoring as much in transition as his previous three squads.

This season's Louisville team averages 7.3 fast-break points per game, one full point less than the 2011-12 team, 2.8 fewer than the 2012-13 team and 3.3 fewer than last season's team.

Related:Pitino "ecstatic" with 15-3 record

As a result, among several other issues, All-American forward Montrezl Harrell's scoring is down over the past four games. The 6-foot-8 junior averages 9.5 points in those games, 5.4 below his season average.

"Montrezl is not on the break as much because our team is not on the break as much," Pitino said. "He gets a lot of points on the break from outrunning people and dunking on them, and he hasn't had that opportunity this year as much."

Beyond Harrell's slow down, Louisville's offensive efficiency has plummeted down the national rankings, now rating 82nd in the country. Louisville's shooting 50 percent on 2-pointers and just 29.5 percent on 3-pointers. The Cardinals aren't getting to the foul line as much as they were earlier this season, either.

Story continues after video

That goes back to Rozier's comments on Saturday. The offensive issues have forced Louisville to come up with different solutions. Pitino and his coaching staff have had the full week to come up with some.

"They're more of an athletic team, and the fact that we haven't gotten out on the break more has (mattered)," Pitino said of his current group.

"This is the fewest amount of fast breaks we've had in 10 years ... We're going to try to do a few different things to enable us to shoot a better percentage."

That effort begins Sunday at Pitt and the Peterson Events Center, a place where the Panthers have won 87.8 percent of their games since the arena opened before the 2002-03 season.

But Louisville's one of the few programs with the winning formula there. The Cards were 3-1 at Pitt during their time together in the Big East, and they'll be favorites to win a fourth on Sunday.

Louisville will want to speed up the Panthers, and they may not oblige. The Cards will just have to get creative.

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