Coach Rich Pitino held his pregame presser for Wednesday’s exhibition against Happy Osborne’s Georgetown Tigers and had some very interesting things to say regarding his squad. After opening up by applauding his team’s effort, the Slickster warned everyone the Cardinals are in for a big time battle due to his squad only practicing for eight sessions and just now are installing their defensive schemes. In contrast, Happy Osborne has had since August with his squad and the Tigers should be much more fluid than the Cards.

After expressing concern over the lack of practices and minimal defensive installation, the Slickster then dropped big time praise on the Cards by calling them a “great shooting team”. I kid you not, the man calls this team a great shooting team. This is huge news, mostly because a great shooting team can win a lot of games. If we remember, the 2005 Final Four squad was undersized and was often times not the most talented team, but they could shot very well at three to four positions. Coach Pitino did not directly compare the 2005 squad with this year’s squad, but he did draw parallels and I consider that encouraging. Keep in mind, coach Pitino called last year’s team, which was ranked #3 preseason, a “good shooting team when we take open shots”.

Slick Rick...doing something weird

Two specific players Pitino talked about were freshmen Peyton Siva and Stephan Van Treese. Slick Rick called Siva, the highest ranked freshman recruiting wise, one of the best people he has ever recruited. Pitino promised that while Siva will make some mistakes, he will have a great year and will wow people with how great of a person he is. I would like to add that every recruiting analyst you followed Siva’s recruitment says the exact same thing.

As for Stephan Van Treese, Pitino thinks he will be a contributor this season. The Slickster feels Van Treese’s strengths are his rebounding and ability to play physically. Slick Rick also told the story of how he ended up recruiting Van Treese. Pitino was up in Naptown with his son Richard, Jr to see some of Stephan’s teammates. While there, the elder Pitino asked his son about Van Treese, who at one time was highly recruited nationally. Lil Rick informed his dad that teams backed off Van Treese due to his lack of big time scoring numbers, but he liked him a lot. Big Rick agreed, and some thereafter, Van Treese committed to Louisville.

Those were the most noteworthy comments I took from the presser. Pitino did sound genuinely concerned over his team’s potential defensive shortcomings in this opening contest. However, Slick Rick did not seem concerned with the outcome of the game as he admitted he would be coaching this game as if it were a NBA preseason game. We’ll have our game preview up tomorrow with recaps to follow.