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Rick Pitino press conference notes

--St. John's plays as well on the defensive end as any team in the conference. They have ten seniors and are very athletic. They deserve their lofty RPI ranking.

--SJU makes it just as difficult to get a good shot off as Villanova and Marquette do.

--Dwight Hardy is one of the better guards in the league, but it's much more than just him. Their biggest asset is depth.

--The Marquette game was a once in a 10-15 year/lifetime comeback.

--Hopes the Marquette game is a springboard to better things for Terrence Jennings.

--The fans have to let up on Peyton Siva. He's someone you should root for whether he has a good or bad night. He didn't play well against Marquette but he was the happiest person on the team after the game. He's a work in progress but he is significantly better than he was a year ago and he'll be very good as a junior and a senior.

--Mike Marra will not play against St. John's.

--Told Preston a couple of weeks ago that he had to try and fill up the stat sheet like T-Will. Obviously more difficult for him to do than T-Will, but he's having a tremendous senior season.

--Team had the best practice of the season last night.

--The best thing about coaching this team is that they're so grounded. They know exactly who they are.

--Preston Knowles will never have senioritis. He truly plays for Louisville, he's not concerned about his future. Knowles didn't want to talk to Bill Raftery after the game because he wanted to celebrate with his team. He just wants to celebrate Louisville.

--Players aren't reading the Internet to see what people are saying about them. The media's doing that, not them. Thank God.

--TJ has showed a lot of maturity since being replaced in the starting lineup by Gorgui Dieng. He had the best practice of his Louisville career last night.

--Preston is a very unusual young man to coach. I've never been disappointed in him on the basketball court. He's one of the easiest players I've ever coached. There are very few leaders among young people these days, and Preston is a tremendous leader. He does it by example, he does it verbally, and he's very smart.