Defense concerns Pitino at Seton Hall, a good 3-point shooting team
Like everyone else in Louisville, Rick Pitino appeared to be enduring flu-like symptoms during his Tuesday press conference at the Yum! Practice Center. Seemed to be going through the motions.

“A couple of the coaches have been sick, including myself, Chane and Russ,” he said. “I don’t think it’s the flu because everybody on the team gets shots, it’s more of severe colds, a 36-hour thing. Every time I shake a hand on my radio show I get sick.”

Confirming the Chane Behanan injury, Pitino relating that trainer Fred Hina says the “moderate high ankle sprain is in a good spot” and he will be back within a week to 10 days. We’ll have to make some adjustment,” he says. “It is what it is.”

The coach believes his backup, Montrezl Harrell, will benefit from the additional playing time. “Doing terrific for a freshman. Defensively he doesn’t understand the zone real well.”

Pitino’s primary concern is defense, not unusual this time of the season. “Everybody has blemishes. We played very poor defense in the second half against Kentucky. We played poor defense in the early part of the Providence game. They shot 50% against us.”

“Peyton Siva and Russ Smith are not doing a good enough job off the ball, especially in the zone. Every single guy hasn’t gotten the ball. The zone is nowhere near what we had with Kyle Kuric and Chris Smith.” He added that Siva and Smith are collecting a lot of bad fouls with their

Pitino warned that Seton Hall, Wednesday’s opponent, is a good three-point shooting team. The Pirates are led by Fuquan Edwin, hitting 50 percent of his three-point attempts and averaging 17.9 points per game. Aaron Cosby, a 6-foot-3 guard, from Louisville, is hitting 40 percent of his three shots, averaging 12.7 points per game.

Then there’s the presence of Eugene Teague, a 6-foot-9, 290-pound center. He’s averaging 12.9 points and 8.5 rebounds per game.

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By Charlie Springer

Charlie Springer is a former Louisville editor and sportswriter, a public affairs consultant, a UofL grad and longtime fan.