By Russ Brown
Special to NKyTribune
LOUISVILLE — In a blog post and on Monday’s Atlantic Coast Conference teleconference, Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino emphasized that his team learned a valuable lesson in its 66-62 upset loss to Clemson on the road Sunday.
He also called the setback a “lost opportunity,” citing the fact that the game was played in Greenville, S.C., 30 miles from campus, and attracted a small crowd because many of the Tigers’ fans were in Phoenix for Monday night’s national championship football game against Alabama.
A subdued crowd of 9,562 was on hand in Bon Secours Wellness Arena, where Clemson is playing its games while Littlejohn Coliseum is being renovated.
What Pitino didn’t mention is that Clemson, despite its 3-1 start, is not considered a serious contender for the league championship, and possibly not even an upper-division finish.
Before beating Louisville, Clemson’s ACC wins were against 0-4 Syracuse and 0-3 Florida State after a middling 7-5 record in nonconference play. So this wasn’t a loss UofL was expected to take. We’ll soon see if the Tigers are for real or not because they host No. 9/6 Duke Wednesday and No. 8/9 Miami Saturday.
UofL (13-3, 2-1) had started ACC play with a home win over Wake Forest and a road victory at NC State. The Cards fell from 16th in both polls to No. 21 in the AP poll and 20th in the coaches voting this week.
“Our team members were all disappointed that we came away with a loss,” Pitino said. “(But) in this tough conference, winning one out of two on the road is not all that bad.”
While the loss to Clemson was the Cards’ worst performance of the season in several areas, it probably shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise because most of their statistics have taken a significant drop since the parade of December pushovers in the KFC Yum! Center ended and stronger competition began.
For instance, while playing overmatched teams that could offer little resistance, UofL’s passing looked sharp and assists piled up. But ball movement has suffered lately. UofL had just 11 assists against Clemson and have recorded only 21 in the last four games.
UofL shot a season-worst 35.3 percent against the Tigers, but that was undoubtedly an aberration. Don’t expect Damion Lee and Trey Lewis to go 5-for-31, or 1-of-18 from 3-point range, again anytime soon. Still, since ACC play began, Louisville’s scoring has plummeted from 85 ppg to 71.4.
“Damion and Trey both realized their mistakes,” Pitino said on the teleconference. “They were very apologetic for how they played. They learned a valuable lesson.”
After the game, Pitino said that Lee was “worried way too much about making his jump shot rather than just playing Louisville basketball, win the game. You can’t get consumed with whether your jump shot goes in or out. You’ve got to get consumed with getting rebounds, creating turnovers and doing other things in the game. Get an offensive rebound. Get a steal. if you’re gonna be one-dimensional, then you’re going to have those kind of days.”
Pitino says the Cards had been taking only two or three challenged shots per game, but were 0-13 on such shots in the loss.
“I think it had a lot to do with Clemson’s defense,” he said. “They got after us really hard and we reacted poorly.”
Besides poor shot selection, the Cards also committed a season-high 17 turnovers, leading to 14 Clemson points.
Defensively, UofL isn’t getting steals, thus its fast break leading to easy baskets has suffered. The Cards had just six thefts Sunday and 21 over the past four outings. And during that same stretch, their opponents have shot 112 free throws to their 71.
Pitino aims for 40-plus deflections per game. In the last three, UofL has gotten 26, 26 and 22 “and that isn’t Louisville defense.”
Pitino says the Cards didn’t react to Clemson’s physical play, singling out forward Ray Spalding and center Anas Mahmoud.
“I’m really disappointed with Anas and Ray because they shied away from physical contact quite a few times and you can’t do that,” Pitino said. “Regardless of what you weigh you’ve got to mix it up.”
The Cards are likely to see more of that kind of physical attack from their next opponent, No. 20/17 Pittsburgh (14-1, 3-0), which visits the KFC Yum! Center Thursday night for a 9 o’clock ESPN game.
Pitt ranks fourth in the country in offensive efficiency and is the best free throw-shooting team in Division I at nearly 80 percent. The Panthers are averaging 85.3 points per game, own the second-best scoring margin in the ACC (+21.1) and the top assist/turnover ratio (1.86). They also have one of the best 3-point defenses, allowing opponents to shoot just 31.5 percent.
“Every game in the conference will be difficult,” Pitino says. “Pittsburgh will be one of the toughest games of the season. They’re really, really good. It’s a must game for us. We’re going to have to play much better than we have the past three games.”