Is Louisville switching up their defensive look?

by Austin Montgomery on Jul 26, 2010 11:49 PM EDT

I heard that they are moving back to the full court press.

After the season was over, Pitino gave his yearly wrap up, and I didn't get to hear all of it, I just heard him say that this year was't "Louisville Basketball."

I was talking to my dad, the only other UL fan in my family, and he said Rick says we are going to the full court press (because we are usually in half court zone)

Anyone have any word on it or information about any changes Rick will be making next year, I also heard him say that he is going to make sure everyone comes to the summer workouts EVEN TJ hah! I found that funny.

Thanks

FOREVER! Your biggest CARDS fan in AZ

(Me next to our liberty bowl trophies from my visit to PJCS a couple of years ago)

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I wouldn't put too much stock in it since you can't take anything Rick says to the bank.

We may try but it depends what our lineup is. I say we don’t.

by crazygameofpoker on Jul 27, 2010 12:10 AM EDT reply actions

hmmm

I have always thought of us as a pressing team, with an exception of this past season. Anyway, according to rick, we are supposed to get back to pressing more and something about a faster playing style then we have seen from the past cardinal teams. I hope these boys run track all summer though, because this past year was one of the slower teams I’ve since in recent times. I’m sure we will see something new this year. I’ll just be happy to see the pressure turned back up on defense.

by Wayne Emberton on Jul 27, 2010 12:17 AM EDT reply actions

yep louisville has about 95% of

rick’s time coaching been a pressing team… 99.9% of louisville fans know this

"UK isn't a choice, you're born bleeding blue"

by kentuckywild on Jul 27, 2010 12:47 AM EDT up reply actions

Exactly

I wouldn’t call it switching it up but rather returning to what Rick’s Ville teams are known for. However, I’m thinking about our lineup and what worries me is if we have guys who can play the press for a sustained amount of time. We’ll see what happens.

by crazygameofpoker on Jul 27, 2010 1:00 AM EDT up reply actions

There's no more Jamaican

And Siva seems to play much faster than Sosa. I think we’ll be fine.

by guyngreen on Jul 27, 2010 8:15 AM EDT up reply actions

I agree

sam sam couldnt move well but we needed him on offense…and we all know sosa never played good D. Last years squad was the only team I’ve seen Rick have that didnt press much. Rick will get this team back to the roots…press your ass off!!!

by doss on Jul 27, 2010 8:43 AM EDT reply actions

why austin why

i love your posts man. why are you in arizona. we could use you here in louisville!

by Cambroni Cardinals on Jul 27, 2010 8:49 AM EDT reply actions

Press your balls off

As Charlie Strong would say

by Austin Montgomery on Jul 27, 2010 1:05 PM EDT reply actions

Hands down...

the best comment you’ve made on this blog thus far.

by CARD_G6 on Jul 27, 2010 9:37 PM EDT up reply actions

hahah

Charlie is the man haha

by Austin Montgomery on Jul 28, 2010 4:01 PM EDT up reply actions

Rick has also said that...

he wants to make a transition for 2011 to be an explosive offensive team with less emphasis on the press. Not really sure what that means, but I guess he’s looking to improve on the offensive tempo (where kenpom had us ranked 170th in offensive tempo).

I’ll agree with everyone here that last year was the exception due to our team makeup. Next year should be back to the white/black press ran out of the 1-2-1-1. White press is an all out steal press (with a focus on trapping) and black press is all out ball denial (and where Pitino gets all excited by charting deflections). The most important component of these sets (in terms of not giving away freebies) is the 5-spot and with TJ’s athleticism and defensive presence we should be able to run it effectively.

We will likely give up some easy buckets early in the year as we learn (or re-learn) how to press, but the biggest improvement I expect to see is defensive rebounding. We got KILLED by opponent’s offensive rebounds last season and just moving out of the zone alone should help that statistic considerably. I’m absolutely geeked to think that we can play man-up for a good portion of this season.

by Remote Cardinal on Jul 27, 2010 1:47 PM EDT reply actions

What bugs me

I love Rick Pitino at heart, is he just cursed because he left UK, how come when he was still coaching at Lexington, you couldn’t beat them bitches. Their D was outstanding, they scored whenever theey wanted to, they were Pitinos Bombinos. We only seen 2 glimpses of that 2005 CARDS and the 2009 CARDS

by Austin Montgomery on Jul 27, 2010 3:35 PM EDT reply actions

So a final four appearance with your 3rd different school...

counts as cursed? I don’t think so. When he was coaching at UK, the game was different and Pitino’s press was the newest/hottest thing out there. I wouldn’t call Pitino cursed at all. Are you sure you weren’t a UK fan at some point… or just a UK hater and became a Cards fan just in spite of UK? How did you become a UofL fan?

I also can’t compare the 2005 & 2009 Cards to any of those UK teams. Just because 2005 went to the final four doesn’t mean they are similar to the UK teams of the 90s.

by guyngreen on Jul 27, 2010 4:47 PM EDT up reply actions

Im not saying hes washed up at all

I think he is still in his prime, I mean Pitino pulls in GREAT talent, but I know when he was at UK his D was unstopable, Rick is always the man.

by Austin Montgomery on Jul 28, 2010 4:02 PM EDT up reply actions

Difference between then and now is recruiting

Pitino is doing the exact same things from a coaching standpoint at Louisville that he did in Lexington, but without star recruits. In 1996 he put together what is largely considered the greatest team in collegiate basketball history. At Louisville, he hasn’t come within a light-year of doing that and still brought the Cards back to national prominence among the list of accomplishments.

Throw in a great recruiting class here (‘God’ willing) and you’d see a lot of the same dominance as UK displayed in the 90’s. Haters love to call Pitino passed his prime and washed up. Complete BULLSH!T. Look at what he’s accomplished here with the talent-level we’ve had to work with. Only a mindless hater would have the gall to say something like that. The only area Rick has slipped in (outside the marriage, yea yea) is recruiting. And hopefully he’s tightening that end back up. Fit that piece into the UofL puzzle and we’re back in the Final Four competing for a championship.

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by LORD KAYOSS on Jul 27, 2010 5:51 PM EDT up reply actions

Absolutely agree.

But it’s not even just his lack of talent here at Louisville… top level talent is being spread thin across a lot of teams these days, and that just didn’t happen in the 90s. So there are fewer elite teams but a lot of really tough teams, making the season a grind and the final 2 or 4 teams absolute bears.

by CARD_G6 on Jul 27, 2010 9:40 PM EDT up reply actions

i agree also

pitino is nowhere near past his prime, give him top notch players and you have a title contending team every year. also teams like uk had in the 90’s dont come around very often.. there is a reason why most uk fans have unrealistic expectations that reason has a name, its pitino

"UK isn't a choice, you're born bleeding blue"

by kentuckywild on Jul 27, 2010 10:22 PM EDT up reply actions

and that is whos fault

isnt rick suppossed to be getting this talent. clearly the teams here havent been anywhere near as talent loaded as the 96 ctas but why isnt he getting those type of guys anymore. its on him to go get those guys. anyone could have coached the 96 team they were just better than everyone else talent wise

by cheaters never win on Jul 29, 2010 12:12 PM EDT up reply actions

It is Rick's fault

As I said, he has slipped in recruiting. I felt I made that pretty clear, but if not, here it is again.

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by LORD KAYOSS on Jul 29, 2010 2:50 PM EDT up reply actions

This is the Big East

Not the freaking SEC. I think the league is too good. We beat each other up to the point of exhaustion come NCAA time. I know these are elite athletes, but the BE teams always seem a bit sluggish in the NCAA. Sure, one or two often makes it deep, but overall they seem like the wind is out of their sails by the latter rounds. While the BE makes for awesome regular season matchups, I think it hurts at the very end. I know the counter-argument (that all that hard play toughens you up for the NCAA’s), but freshness does matter at the end I think. More than we want to admit. I think this hurts Pitino Louisville teams more than anything he’s doing or not doing himself.

by CardsFanTX on Jul 28, 2010 11:46 AM EDT reply actions

yea i kinda agree with ya but basketball isnt

that hard to recover from… you get plenty of rest before tourney starts, the problem with the big east being so tough and competitive is that by the time march comes around your team’s flaws have been exposed where teams in the sec and acc have chances of flaws being masked due to inferior competition.. while not being tested alot can hurt you in the tournament, having tons of game film of your conference best teams push to the limit by other best teams hurt even more.. there is a reason the top 3 basketball schools ever ucla, uk, and unc are from conference with very little competition.. the big east has been the toughest conference the past what 3-5 years.. not always a good thing

"UK isn't a choice, you're born bleeding blue"

by kentuckywild on Jul 28, 2010 7:35 PM EDT up reply actions

Good points.

That dreaded G school.

They gone have to stop sleeping on me one day.. I gotta be one of the best

About 3 hours ago by Eric Wright Cleveland Browns – Cornerback

I understand, as a big daddy come and take my spot type of demeanor?

by mooncamping on May 14, 2010 7:24 AM EDT

by Villeslgr on Jul 28, 2010 10:05 PM EDT up reply actions

I agree as well.

We exposed Cuse’s weakness last year and honestly the tactics we employed were all they saw in the both tournaments (BE and NCAA). Of course Arinze Onuaku getting hurt was probably more impacting than anything else.

by Remote Cardinal on Jul 29, 2010 12:32 PM EDT up reply actions