Not exactly how we drew it up, but the good news is the Cards avoided what would have been an awful late-February loss on their home floor.
Today was one of those weird days where the game was in jeopardy for every tick of the 40 minutes, but you never really felt like Louisville was in actual danger of losing. I was frustrated by the way the team was playing, sure, but I was always confident the game would end with us picking up our 10th Big East win. It reminded me a lot of the Notre Dame game, but obviously with a much better finish.
The most positive aspect of the day (at least to me) came after the game when Rick Pitino said the three biggest things for this team right now are playing a faster pace, cutting down on the turnovers and getting Wayne Blackshear into the flow of things. I could not agree with that statement any more.
Louisville can beat teams like Pitt playing the style they did today (obviously), but to have any shot at making a run in the Big East Tournament or NCAA Tournament, the Cards have got to get out and run more. We're not as skilled or polished as we thought we'd be at this point in the season, which means it's going to be hard for us to beat good teams with our halfcourt offense. Playing in transition is the best way to utilize Peyton Siva's skills, it's an area where Russ Sith can thrive, and it's also going to create the clean looks for Kyle Kuric and Chris Smith that are largely being taken away right now. I'm extremely interested to see how we come out on Wednesday night against South Florida.
Plenty more to talk about, but for now I'll leave you with Pitino's postgame comments: