Louisville “would have lost to Western” had they played Saturday

Rick Pitino wasn’t a happy camper yesterday after his Louisville Cardinals beat UNC-Wilmington by only (I say “only,”) 68-57, and took a 32-24 lead into the locker room for halftime. The Cards shot 41.% from the floor and 7.7% from beyond the arc. So, they aren’t awful numbers, but bad enough to allow the Seahawks to keep things close.

Pintino, rightly so, was not happy with his team’s play. You can check out his full 100 second (no longer, no shorter) press conference below:

“We would have lost to Western. No question about it, we would have lost to Western.”

HAHA! Absolutely they would have. Statistically speaking, the Tops shot better from the floor (42.6%) and from three (42.9%) than the Cards did yesterday. If you watched the whole presser, Pitino noted the egos on the team and in the locker room as a direct reason as to why the Cardinals fell flat.

This is kind of a good news-bad news scenario. The good news, of course, is that egos are hard to get rid of. That, plus the Tops have gotten rid of one with the news of Ayinde Sprewell asking for a release from the school, they’re now more of a team and are coming off a win that will give them all sorts of confidence as the season progresses. (And, a recap is coming for that game. I promise.)

The bad news, however, is that the Cardinals don’t play again until they come to Bowling Green on Saturday, and with a coach as good as Pitino, he’s going to have them ready and the likelyhood of a Top 5 team laying a goose egg two nights in a row is highly unlikely.

But hey, I can dream, can’t I?