Louisville plays their first exhibition tomorrow against Barry. Here are the highlights from Pitino:
--Our biggest issue right now is turnovers, and it's not our freshmen surprisingly, it's our upperclassmen. We're so used to having the ball in the hands of Russ or Luke all the time, that now our guys don't know what to do when they have be the ones in control.
--Barry's a good team, they're all Division-I transfers. Their point guard played for Richard at FIU. It'll be a nice test for us, we're excited to play someone else.
--I think we're looking at a six or seven man rotation right now, I'm hoping seven. We'll see if we can play six without getting into too much foul trouble.
--I was disappointed last night the way all our fans were. It was a great game, but I guess that's why Florida State is unbeaten with that quarterback.
--We have some frustrated guys right now because they don't know how to work like a Louisville basketball player. When you get foreign players, they're all very humble and they have great attitudes, but they don't know how to work hard. That's something we have to teach them. They're not dogging it, they just don't understand the makeup of a Louisville basketball player.
--We went down to Florida and Barry gave us all the hospitality in the world, so we asked if they needed anything in return. They said they'd love to come to the Yum Center for an exhibition game, and we said done. They're a good team too, so it helps us as well.
--We may play nine guys tomorrow, but I'd like to play seven guys major minutes. I want to see if we can do that and press and still have guys stay out of foul trouble.
--Montrezl is a very good leader. He leads differently than Peyton or Gorgui or Luke, but he's a good leader. He's really matured, but he still leads by intimidation.
--Wayne's foul trouble is based mostly on the fact that he puts his hands on people too much.
--(Is Wayne putting his hands on people to much a Chicago thing?) I don't know. I haven't spent enough time on the streets of Chicago to answer that question.
--The greatest motivator for us is the bench. If you don't play great defense at Louisville, you don't play. Everyone played in the Red-White scrimmages, but now some guys are going to experience what it's like to be rooting people on with the cheerleaders.
--ACC Media day was the longest day I've ever seen. I like you guys, but I don't want to spend 11 hours with you, and I know you don't want to spend 11 hours with me.
--This is the least I've known about a basketball team in the last five years. I can't figure these guys out. I don't know how good we are or what to expect.
--Out of all the guys, I'm most pleased with Mangok right now because he understands what we need from him and who he needs to be.
--Trez is probably going to play a little three tomorrow. We need Mangok to be last year's Montrezl, we need him to dunk and defend and get rebounds.
--We have a lot of guys who have no idea what to expect in these big game environments. There's going to be a little bit of stage freight.
--Anas has been awful in practice and Matz has been great, but it's been the exact opposite in the scrimmages. Matz has a little bit of stage freight. Russ Smith was like Anas, he was awful in practice but when the big lights came on he really responded.
--Chinanu Onuaku turns 18 tomorrow. He's physically ready to play, but he's still so young.
