The first game of the college basketball season is in the books and for the 11th straight year our Cardinals start it off with a win. Louisville beat Minnesota tonight 81-68 in the Armed Forces Classic. It was the 18th time that a Father and Son coached against each other and after the outcome of this game the dads now lead 16-2. Richard Pitino has a good team and he is a very good coach but he won’t join Ed Dibble Jr and Jan van Breda Kolff as the only sons to beat their dads in a college basketball game. With the win the Cardinals even the overall series with Minnesota 3-3, and Coach Rick Pitino is now just four wins away from 700 in his career.
Louisville has always been a team under Rick Pitino that relies on the defense to generate offense. And while this team has a ton of offensive potential it was the defense again tonight that helped this team find their offensive rhythm and score points when they needed them the most. The Cardinals scored 18 points off turnovers and had big efforts from Montrezl, Terry and Chris.
Montrezl was all over the court and making big play after big play. He had a career night to start his season scoring 30 points, and grabbing 7 rebounds. He was 3-4 from the 3-point line and also showed off that little 15 foot jumper a few times. His most impressive moment for me came when he threw down an alley-oop on the offensive side of the ball and then sprinted down the floor to take a charge on the defensive side of the ball. Its hustle plays like that along with his polished offensive game that makes him a solid candidate for National Player of the Year. He made a good opening statement tonight and boy I’m glad that he came back for another year.
Terry is one of those players who lets the flow of the game come to him and doesn’t force anything. Before you know it he has 18 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assist and 4 steals without a single turnover. Coach Pitino said about Rozier after the game “I’ve not seen a guy work that hard in a long, long time at both phases of the game.” And Terry made it look effortless.
Chris had a very solid first game himself with 13 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assist. He was also very disruptive on the defensive side of the ball and had 3 steals. I really think he and Terry work well together and they do very well in their joint effort to run the offense.
The most impressive freshman of the night was Quentin Snider. This kid carries himself with such confidence and it carries over into his game. He had 7 points with 4 rebounds and didn’t have a single turnover. He hit a big three point shot late in the game when Minnesota was making a little run that sparked a 19-2 run for the Cardinals. I said after watching him in the scrimmages that I loved his moxie and he didn’t disappoint me tonight.
The biggest area for concern for this team will be what it can get from the 5 spot. Tonight between Onuaku and Mango it was 4 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assist, 1 block, and 1 steal. I do feel like the more experience Nanu gets the better he will get as the season progresses. I have to say that I really expected a lot more from Mango considering how he finished last year. It may also take him some time to get it going.
It is no secret that the Cardinals multiple 30 win seasons have come on the back of some really great defensive teams. I think this team will carry on that tradition. The Cardinals were very active in their pressing defense tonight and were flying all over the court. They held a pretty solid shooting team to just 40% from the floor and 22% from behind the arc just .87 points per trip. The Cardinals had 11 steals and forced 18 turnovers. If this team can continue down this path their offensive prowess will just be an added bonus to the arsenal.
Just a day before he would coach in the first game of the season against his legendary father Richard Pitino gathered with his family in Puerto Rico for the Christening of his son. Tonight Richard’s father gave him another baptism by fire. No doubt that the younger Pitino will take this loss and build on it and I do think his team will be very good this season. I really like Richard Pitino and really want to believe that the Louisville job will be his someday when Rick decides to head to the rocking chair. This really was a fun game to watch from the build up to the end. I was satisfied with how the Cardinals played and think we will have something for them come March. The road started tonight folks enjoy the rest of the season. Go Cards!
