By Russ Brown
NKyTribune correspondent
LOUISVILLE — Even more so than most of the 351 NCAA Division I basketball teams, the University of Louisville’s season is defined by time. Not days or hours, but minutes.
And that’s especially true for UofL’s two senior starters, Damion Lee and Trey Lewis.
“We have 160 minutes of college basketball to play that will be put on film that’s going to live forever,” says Lee. “So we have to make sure we do whatever it takes to make those minutes count.”
Almost immediately after the Cardinals learned of the school’s self-imposed postseason ban that would keep them out of the Atlantic Coast Conference and NCAA tournaments, they revised their goals.
Now the one and only focus is on the ACC regular season championship.
“That means everything to us. Everything,” Lee says. “Knowing we don’t have any postseason, this is our postseason.”
Heading into Wednesday night’s game against Pittsburgh (19-7, 8-6) the No. 11 Cards (21-6, 10-4 ACC) are in position to accomplish their goal, although they will need some help, trailing North Carolina (11-3) by one game and Virginia (11-4) by a half-game after the Cavaliers’ 64-61 loss at Miami Monday night.
“We want to get something out of this season, so we want to do everything in our power to win the ACC championship so people can talk about how far we might have gone (in the NCCA Tournament),” freshman guard Donovan Mitchell says. “We’re in the hunt. We’re still playing for something; it’s not like this season is a waste.”
With the ban, UofL coach Rick Pitino says he and his players are looking for “silver linings and challenges.”
“And playing three of our final four games on the road will be a good one for us,” he added. “Three very difficult games. We are looking at the the ACC title, but that is the big picture. The little picture for us is to get ready to play at Pittsburgh. If we win all our (remaining) games, we will have a great shot, but you have to take it game by game. That’s the important thing.”
Since the ban was announced on Feb. 5, the Cards have done a good job of focusing on their immediate goal rather than sulking over a March that will be spent as spectators. UofL has gone 3-2 since then, turning in their best two performances of the season in home wins over North Carolina and Duke.
No matter where the game is played, Louisville has been Pittsburgh’s most successful opponent in recent years. The Cards own a seven-game winning streak against the Panthers, including the 59-41 rout on Jan. 14 in the KFC Yum! Center. They will be seeking their third straight win over Pitt in the Peterson Events Center, where they haven’t lost since 2010.
In the earlier loss, which snapped a 10-game Pitt winning streak, the Panthers were no match for UofL’s defense, which not only held them to a season-low in points, but also a season-worst 28.6 percent shooting and 19 turnovers.
On the season, UofL is holding opponents to 38.1 field goal percentage (8th in the nation) and is seventh in scoring defense at 60.7 ppg. Only two ACC teams have shot better than 42 percent against the Cards — Virginia Tech (45.1) and Virginia (57.8) in back-to-back games in late January.
“Their defensive field-goal percentage speaks volumes,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon says. “That’s a stat that everybody looks at. They play great defense. They’re the most physical defensive team in the league by far. You have to be able to handle the physicality they present. You have to be able to drive the basketball and make some plays. You’re going to have to get into the lane and then finish over big, athletic players.”
While the Cards have thrived on defense, that end of the court has been an Achilles heel for the Panthers, who are allowing ACC foes to shoot 48.8 percent overall — second-worst in the league to Boston College — and a conference-worst 42.0 from 3-point land. Pitt is surrendering 68.2 ppg, the most since Dixon took over as coach in 2003.
“It probably frustrates me more because we’ve been so good defensively (in previous seasons),” Dixon says. “We know exatly what it is. We’ve just got to get bad habits changed. We’re certainly not giving up.”
If the Panthers haven’t been tough on defense, that certainly hasn’t been the case on the boards. In ACC play, they are second in rebounding margin at plus-8.0, slightly behind Louisville’s plus-8.7. Pitt has clobbered its last three opponents — North Carolina, Wake Forest and Syracuse — by an incredible 59-16 on the offensive glass.
By comparison, UofL outrebounded those three teams by a total of 18.
Pitt senior guard James Robinson says the Panthers need to take the same approach on defense as they do on rebounding.
“Based on our defensive field goal percentage, we obviously aren’t getting the job done,” Robinson says. “I wouldn’t say we are a soft team, but I think we can get a lot tougher and at this point in the season everybody wants to turn it up a notch and get tougher. We owe it to ourselves to sell out these last four games going into tournament time.”
The Cards feel the same way, minus the reference to the tournament.