In his most recent post over at RickPitino.net, Bloggin' Rick discusses Sunday's loss to Clemson, his team's propensity for fouling, and the importance of Thursday night's game against Pitt.
Here's a portion:
Well, every game in the conference will be difficult. Clemson was no exception. Give them all the credit for physically taking us out of our offense. We were averaging two-to-three challenged shots per game and that is one of the reasons we were shooting a high percentage. In Sunday's game, we totally abandoned those high percentage shots, going 0-13 with challenged shots. Lots of lessons the hard way for us with this loss.
Golden opportunity lost! Clemson's football team playing for the National Championship Monday night brought a very small crowd to Bon Secours Wellness Arena. Their home court advantage was not like other places because of their arena renovation. Opportunity Lost!
The Bad:
* Fouling. Clemson's 32-44 free throws led to our demise. With the #1 free throw shooting team in the nation coming into the KFC Yum! Center on Thursday, this is something we must correct.
* Seventeen turnovers in a slow game — mostly traveling — was not typical of our team.
* Deflections - my biggest concern with this team. As often stated, if we record 40+ deflections, we win 95% of our games. We have had 26, 26, & 22 deflections the last three games. Clemson had 8 steals to our 6. Not what Louisville defense is all about.
You can read the full post here.
