By Russ Brown
Special to NKyTribune
LOUISVILLE — Catching up with University of Louisville hoops while waiting for a UK defender to tackle Lamar Jackson. . .
UofL coach Rick Pitino made news over the weekend when he claimed that the reason his undefeated team wasn’t ranked at the time in the Top-25 in either of the major polls is due to the ongoing NCAA investigation into the school’s alleged sex scandal. He said that the distractions from the scandal have overshadowed the Cardinals’ play on the floor.
“I think people are looking at that and they’re not really studying the team,” Pitino told reporters after his team had defeated Saint Louis 77-57 in the Barclays Center in Brooklyn Saturday night to raise its record to 5-0.
“Louisville is always going to be ranked in the beginning of the season, and then you just look and we weren’t even ranked. We had the best recruiting class, I think, in college basketball if you include (transfers) Damion Lee and Trey Lewis. Kentucky taught me how to get into the one-and-dones, and I’m doing it now, except I’m waiting for fifth-year guys instead of high school kids.”
However, Pitino failed to point out that Louisville lost nearly every key member of last year’s Elite Eight team and 83 percent of its scoring, which obviously played a role in the Cards being snubbed in the preseason balloting. With seven newcomers and the loss of four starters, they were essentially an unknown quantity.
“I just think we’re ignored,” Pitino said. “There’s so much talk about other things, they didn’t really focus on basketball, but that’s okay. It makes you hungry. Not since 1987 have I coached a group with this type of character as people, and I’ve had some really good teams and good guys. These guys have nothing to do with anything. They’re all new, and they’re fun to coach.”
Pitino is probably right on one count: Media voters in the AP poll and his peers in the coaches poll aren’t studying the Cardinals. What they’re studying is UofL’s woefully weak non-conference schedule, and it’s an ugly picture.
Here’s a suggestion: If Pitino wants his club to be ranked this early in the season, he should upgrade his schedule to give the Cards a chance to beat someone that matters.
You’re not going to get any attention or respect by bullying the likes of Samford, Hartford, North Florida, St. Francis Brooklyn (is that a monastery?) and playing 10 home games against mostly that caliber of competition. When Butler scored 144 points against The Citadel earlier this month, I fully expected to see the (Citadel) Bulldogs as a late addition to UofL’s schedule. Not sure how they were originally overlooked as a victim.
And there is more of the same on the way. Future opponents in the KFC Yum Center include Grand Canyon, Eastern Michigan, Kennesaw State, Missouri Kansas City and Utah Valley. While not a power by any means, Western Kentucky on Dec. 19 at least represents a respectable program.
For a program that considers itself among the nation’s elite, that’s an embarrassing string of inferior opponents.
Of course, every team from the upper-echelon of the Power 5 conferences schedules so-called guaranteed victories at home in non-league games, but UofL has taken it to a whole new level.
Consider some of UK’s non-conference foes: Duke, at UCLA, Arizona State, Ohio State, UofL, at Kansas. Or Duke: UK, VCU, Georgetown, Indiana, Utah. Or Kansas: Michigan State, UCLA, Vanderbilt, San Diego State.
Going into the North Florida game on Nov. 21, the Ospreys were the only UofL home non-conference opponent with an RPI below 200, checking in at No. 99.
Before meeting Kentucky in Rupp Arena on Dec. 26, Louisville will play exactly one formidable opponent — No. 3 Michigan State (7-0) Wednesday night in East Lansing, Mich. in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. And Pitino had nothing to do with scheduling that game, nor the annual UK contest for that matter.
Stats guru ranks UofL’s non-conference strength of schedule at No. 332 out of 351 Division I teams.
Before this week, UofL was sixth under also receiving votes in the AP poll and second in that category in the coaches poll. However, Pitino’s complaining evidently proved fruitful, because the Cards broke into both rankings Monday — at No. 24 AP and No. 22 coaches.
Nevertheless, they still aren’t deserving. Rather, let’s wait to see how UofL fares against Michigan State in its only test during nearly the first two months of the season.
Then we’ll at least have one measure of how competitive the Cards are against a top team, which is one more than we have now. To date, they haven’t come close to earning Top-25 recognition.
And if they lose to the favored Spartans, the Cards’ stay in the polls will be a short one. Rightfully so.
PITINO CRITICIZES MEDIA
During his post-Saint Louis press conference, Pitino also broke his recent silence about the allegations against the program in Katina Powell’s book, although he didn’t address any of the accusations directly. He mostly criticized the media.
“The shame of it all for me — I’ve kept my mouth quiet because the NCAA asked me to do it, and I certainly won’t read the book — is that you (the media) bought into it,” Pitino said. “Because I like a lot of people in the media. I’m someone who’s been media friendly for a long, long time. You believe it. That’s the startling thing.
“Now we’ve got 11 women coming forward and saying that didn’t happen, signing affidavits. Everybody just bought it. I wouldn’t buy it for a second. Now, is there some truth in the allegations? I’m sure there is. But nobody called them to task. I don’t know. I’m a doubting Thomas. So, what I’ll do is let the NCAA do their job. But I do know this basketball team had absolutely nothing to do with it. And they can’t comment.”
ADEL OUT LONGER–Pitino says he doesn’t expect 6-7 freshman forward Deng Adel, who suffered a sprained MCL two weeks ago, to be return to action for a minimum of another two weeks.
“We’re going to really err on the side of caution here,” Pitino said. “We’re going to try to make sure he’s 100 percent for the Kentucky game.”