LOUISVILLE CARDINALS
* Record: 22-5 (10-4 Atlantic Coast Conference) * AP ranking: No. 7 * NCAA RPI: 4 * Coach: Rick Pitino, 16th season at Lousville, 413-137 (.754) * Best win: 78-69 over visiting Duke * Worst loss: 71-55 at Virginia * Best stat: Heading into Wednesday night's game at North Carolina, the Cardinals have shot the same number of free throws as their opponents - 582 - but have hit nine more (403 to 394). * Best player: Sophomore guard Donovan Mitchell leads the Cards in scoring (15.6) while averaging 4.7 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 2.1 steals per contest. On an experienced team loaded with depth and talent, Mitchell stands above the rest. * Can be dancin' in the desert if: They can get offense and defense clicking at the same time. This team has depth, experience, size, talent and the only coach in the country, Rick Pitino, who's won NCAA titles at two different schools (Louisville and Kentucky). But what was a great defensive team and challenged offensive team early in the season has almost reversed itself in recent games. If both are clicking at same time, the Cards could win it all. * Prediction: Final Four * Coachspeak: "They just suffocate you with pressure, and then you start getting on your heels and you go from an eight-point game to a 20-point game very, very quickly, and you can only burn so many timeouts." - Eastern Kentucky's Dan McHale following a 87-56 loss at Louisville in December
Louisville's Deng Adel, right, shoots over Syracuse's Tyler Roberson, left, in the finals seconds of an NCAA college basketball game in Syracuse, N.Y., Monday, Feb. 13, 2017. Louisville won 76-72. (AP Photo/Nick Lisi)Rick Pitino didn't become the only college basketball coach in NCAA history to win national championships at two different schools (Louisville and Kentucky) without knowing how to motivate his players after both victory and defeat.
So while the Hall of Fame coach may not have taken kindly to U of L giving up 90 points in this past Saturday's 94-90 home victory over pesky Virginia Tech, it's doubtful he believed a word of his comment that "if we don't start playing better defense, we're all going to be on vacation early. You (the media) are going to be covering somebody else."
Especially since counterpart Buzz Williams said of those 17 3-pointers the Hokies tossed in from all over the Yum! Center: "If we don't have a hot shooting night, they beat us by 40."
After voluntarily skipping last year's NCAA tourney over charges that the school hired prostitutes to entertain recruits, Louisville is back with a vengeance this winter as it prepares for a pivotal Atlantic Coast Conference game Wednesday night at conference leader North Carolina.
Now 22-5 for the season (10-4 in the ACC), the Cards are up to No. 7 in the latest Associated Press poll and No. 4 in Monday's NCAA Rating Percentage Index.
"I think Louisville can and potentially will win the league," Virginia Tech's Williams said over the weekend. "I think Louisville is a one seed, no worse than a two seed (in the NCAA tourney). This is one of the best teams in the country. Coach Pitino has been in the Hall of Fame and deservedly so. He's ahead in every way."
Typically, the Cards are ahead of everyone they play defensively, famously playing Pitino's "mother-in-law" defense, which he once said was labeled that because it brought constant harassment.
And last Saturday's 90 points aside - U of L hasn't surrendered more than 80 in any other game this season - the Cards still remain second in the formidable ACC in scoring defense (64 points allowed per game), 3-point defense, blocks and rebound margin.
As U of L point guard Quentin Snider surmised after the Virginia Tech game: "Most important thing with Coach P is defense. And today the defense wasn't that good."
What's beginning to seem much different about these Cards from some of Ricky P's predecessors is their offensive chops.
If you throw out a 71-55 loss at Virginia on Feb. 6 when the Cards were without four starters due to injury and suspension, they have averaged 85.3 points per game since Jan. 19. Their points-allowed average in those same eight ACC games was 67.4.
"Coach has put so much emphasis on moving the ball," leading scorer Donovan Mitchell (15.6 ppg) said earlier this month. "It's all about finding the open man."
Long Beach State coach Dan Monson has brought his 49ers teams to Louisville three times. After an 88-56 loss to the Cardinals earlier this season he said, "This is the best offensive team they've had. They just have a lot of ways to score. Some years they have been more of a grind-it-out team, but I'm really impressed with their balance."
Here's balance: Ten Cards play at least 10 minutes a game. And while only Mitchell, Snider (12.5 ppg) and Deng Adel (11.3 ppg) average in double figures in points, nine players average 4.6 points or more and a 10th - redshirt freshman guard Ryan McMahon - came off the bench to hit three 3-pointers in four attempts against Virginia Tech.
A second fact about McMahon: Pitino signed him on the advice of ESPN's Dick Vitale, who had seen the young man play high school ball in Florida and told the Louisville coach that he needed to take the sharpshooter.
This almost always has been the Pitino way. Whether it be at Providence (Billy Donovan), Kentucky (Richie Farmer and Cameron Mills) or Louisville (McMahon), he always has at least one player who may not wow you athletically but is capable of killing you with a timely 3-pointer.
Just look at his 2013 national title team at U of L and the two crucial 3s that walk-on Tim Henderson made to bring the Cards back from a double-digit second-half deficit in the national semifinal win over Wichita State.
Come a crucial moment in this year's tournament, McMahon could become Pitino's latest secret weapon.
But regardless of which Cardinal does the most to move his teammates through March, the strength of this team is its length - U of L can count on a 7-footer (Anas Mahmoud), two 6-foot-10 players (Mangok Mathiang and Ray Spalding) and 6-9 Jaylen Johnson among its first eight - and experience (five juniors or seniors and three sophomores).
"As long as we just focus on the little things," Mitchell said following the Virginia Tech game, "we should be fine."
They might even be enough better than that to wind up one of the four finest teams in the land come the final weekend of this year's NCAA tourney.
Contact Mark Wied mer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.