Jeff Greer
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- The trip that has been a primary topic of conversations about Louisville basketball over the past few months is finally here.
It is only August, and they will only be exhibition games against the Puerto Rican national team, but the Cardinals' week here in San Juan will help coach Rick Pitino and his staff map out their team's strengths and weaknesses before the 2015-16 season.
"You still don't know where the points are going to come from yet," Pitino said before coaching U of L through 20 practices in the past 10 days ahead of the trip.
"That's why Puerto Rico is going to be crucial. ... When you do individual instruction, you're basically doing drills without defense. You're working on footwork. You know who has good footwork. You know who can shoot. You know their work ethic. You don't know defense. You don't know schemes."
Pitino has been excited this offseason by his team's chemistry and attitude. He has raved about the leadership of redshirt junior Mangok Mathiang and graduate transfer Trey Lewis, and he told reporters Thursday that his squad is one of the better shooting teams he has had in recent years.
They will put those attributes to the test in a series of nine games in six days, with a doubleheader on Tuesday night starting the series. The games will be broadcast on WHAS-840 and streamed live on GoCards.com with a one-time, $9.95 access fee.
Louisville's first team, likely made up of walk-ons, freshmen and some of the inexperienced sophomores, will play in the 5:30 p.m. game at San Juan's Jose Miguel Agrelot Coliseum against Puerto Rico's junior national team.
At 8 p.m., in the same arena, Louisville's second team, likely to include Lewis, Mathiang and grad transfer Damion Lee, among others, will take on Puerto Rico's senior national team.
The teams will repeat that schedule on Wednesday and again on Thursday before playing three individual games in three days through Sunday.
Pitino's Puerto Rico squad is made of professional players, most notably Dallas Mavericks guard JJ Barea, Portland Trailblazers wing Moe Harkless and former first-round NBA draft pick Renaldo Balkman. If Louisville beats them once or twice this week, Pitino said the Cards would be "a pretty good basketball team."
"Like Renaldo Balkman said, 'It's going to be a tough game. We're going to beat them, but we're going to need a lot of legs to beat these guys, because of the conditioning of the Louisville guys,'" Pitino said.
The 62-year-old coach conceded that this week would be an odd experience, one that pits his first "international" team – Puerto Rico is actually an American territory – against the college program he has coached since 2001.
"I think the unique thing is going to be me coaching a team, and I'll be trying to beat my team," Pitino said. "Deep down, I'm hoping that my team beats me. It's something that, if we lose, I know we have a lot of work. If they start beating the Puerto Rican team, we've got something pretty good here."
Pitino said Thursday that his U of L team will have some downtime, though not much, to enjoy Puerto Rico's beaches. They have games every day this week, through Sunday, and this is a crucial business trip for them as the summer ends and classes approach.
The Cards haven't had a chance like this, to see what kind of team they have on an overseas summer trip, since 2011, when they toured the Bahamas. And after a summer full of optimism about the 2015-16 group, Pitino and his staff can't wait to start.
"We'll know what we need to work on to get better, but we'll also know what we have," Pitino said. "Very few teams on foreign trips will have that. It's a unique trip from that standpoint, (because) from a scouting standpoint, I'll know how to scout their team, and they'll know how to scout mine."
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- The trip that has been a primary topic of conversations about Louisville basketball over the past few months is finally here.
It is only August, and they will only be exhibition games against the Puerto Rican national team, but the Cardinals' week here in San Juan will help coach Rick Pitino and his staff map out their team's strengths and weaknesses before the 2015-16 season.
"You still don't know where the points are going to come from yet," Pitino said before coaching U of L through 20 practices in the past 10 days ahead of the trip.
"That's why Puerto Rico is going to be crucial. ... When you do individual instruction, you're basically doing drills without defense. You're working on footwork. You know who has good footwork. You know who can shoot. You know their work ethic. You don't know defense. You don't know schemes."
Pitino has been excited this offseason by his team's chemistry and attitude. He has raved about the leadership of redshirt junior Mangok Mathiang and graduate transfer Trey Lewis, and he told reporters Thursday that his squad is one of the better shooting teams he has had in recent years.
They will put those attributes to the test in a series of nine games in six days, with a doubleheader on Tuesday night starting the series. The games will be broadcast on WHAS-840 and streamed live on GoCards.com with a one-time, $9.95 access fee.
Louisville's first team, likely made up of walk-ons, freshmen and some of the inexperienced sophomores, will play in the 5:30 p.m. game at San Juan's Jose Miguel Agrelot Coliseum against Puerto Rico's junior national team.
At 8 p.m., in the same arena, Louisville's second team, likely to include Lewis, Mathiang and grad transfer Damion Lee, among others, will take on Puerto Rico's senior national team.
The teams will repeat that schedule on Wednesday and again on Thursday before playing three individual games in three days through Sunday.
Pitino's Puerto Rico squad is made of professional players, most notably Dallas Mavericks guard JJ Barea, Portland Trailblazers wing Moe Harkless and former first-round NBA draft pick Renaldo Balkman. If Louisville beats them once or twice this week, Pitino said the Cards would be "a pretty good basketball team."
"Like Renaldo Balkman said, 'It's going to be a tough game. We're going to beat them, but we're going to need a lot of legs to beat these guys, because of the conditioning of the Louisville guys,'" Pitino said.
The 62-year-old coach conceded that this week would be an odd experience, one that pits his first "international" team – Puerto Rico is actually an American territory – against the college program he has coached since 2001.
"I think the unique thing is going to be me coaching a team, and I'll be trying to beat my team," Pitino said. "Deep down, I'm hoping that my team beats me. It's something that, if we lose, I know we have a lot of work. If they start beating the Puerto Rican team, we've got something pretty good here."
Pitino said Thursday that his U of L team will have some downtime, though not much, to enjoy Puerto Rico's beaches. They have games every day this week, through Sunday, and this is a crucial business trip for them as the summer ends and classes approach.
The Cards haven't had a chance like this, to see what kind of team they have on an overseas summer trip, since 2011, when they toured the Bahamas. And after a summer full of optimism about the 2015-16 group, Pitino and his staff can't wait to start.
"We'll know what we need to work on to get better, but we'll also know what we have," Pitino said. "Very few teams on foreign trips will have that. It's a unique trip from that standpoint, (because) from a scouting standpoint, I'll know how to scout their team, and they'll know how to scout mine."
