Bleacher Report - Louisville Cardinals Basketball

Louisville's Success Hinges on Jared Swopshire's Numbers

Jonathan Lintner — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 02:37:02 -0500

The question of whether the Louisville Cardinals will replace Terrence Williams’ and Earl Clark’s production is looming large.

Yet the answer is relatively small.

Sophomore forward Jared Swopshire was thrown into the starting small forward role occupied by Williams for four seasons in Louisville’s season-opening game against Arkansas.

Swopshire racked up 11 points and 10 rebounds in 27 minutes played against the Razorbacks. He was on a roll.

But the production didn’t last.

In the Cardinals’ 69-56 win over East Tennessee State Saturday, Swopshire saw the court for a minute more but pulled down only two rebounds.

East Tennessee presented neither a make-or-break game nor a close contest by any means for Louisville. Still, more than a year into his growth as a college athlete, Swopshire showed signs that he still may be soft.

That’s not a problem for Head Coach Rick Pitino, who defends Swopshire’s generously listed 220-pound frame.

“Sometimes softness is because you are 188 or 190 pounds, you haven’t lifted any weights,” Pitino said last Friday. “I’d rather have a guy that can shoot really well, great skills, willing to pay the price and be a little weak or not really be a real great defensive player, but be able to shoot it.

“You can have great success with those players.”

Only Swopshire didn’t produce in against the Buccaneers in any statistical category. He was 0-for-5 from the field, recording two points on 2-of-2 free-throw shooting.

The 6-8 sophomore may never develop the body of Samardo Samuels, the Cardinals’ featured big man. He may not possess the same on-court personality as Williams had.

And he certainly doesn’t have the same intangibles as Clark, taken in the first round of last summer’s NBA draft after his junior year at Louisville.

But Pitino does see Swopshire as a consistent starter filling in a 225-pound body—one who can rebound like mad.

Pitino said it hasn’t always been that way.

“He wasn’t a good rebounder until this year,” Pitino said. “The knock on Jared when I went out recruiting…great kid with great skills, but really soft.”

It’s now time for Swopshire’s skills to overlap any “soft” left in the sophomore. The Cardinals need his production this season, and they need it consistently.

Without Williams and Clark, guards Preston Knowles and Jerry Smith can dish out the assists. Guard Edgar Sosa and Samuels can tally up the points. Samuels and forward Terrence Jennings can work the boards.

And it’s Swopshire that needs to fill the holes, put in good minutes, and provide an occasional breakout performance—just as he did against Arkansas.

Because in Big East play, it’s a loss for Louisville if Swopshire doesn’t answer the bell.

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Surprise, Surprise: Louisville Strong Out of the Gate

Jonathan Lintner — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:58:08 -0500

Rick Pitino’s Louisville Cardinals spurned an early season trend in their 96-66 win over Arkansas last Wednesday night.

They won an early season game, and they did so without a scare.

Since joining the Big East in 2005, Pitino has noticeably adjusted to the Cardinals’ strenuous conference schedule. Louisville typically disregards its preseason ranking, placing winning on the back burner in favor of instilling team chemistry and lasting stamina.

Last season, Pitino’s strategy peaked.

Louisville started the new year with three losses—to Western Kentucky, Minnesota and UNLV—then reeled off nine straight wins, won the Big East Conference Tournament and solidified itself as the top seed in the NCAA Tournament.

As he always does, Pitino caught some flack for the early blunders. As always, they were forgotten in January, February, and especially March.

It remains to be seen what Pitino’s approach will be this season.

Could the Big East’s expected drop in talent be more reason to push early? Could the higher profiles of non-conference opponents like Western Kentucky, UNLV, and Kentucky be a reason to make an early push?

Or was Louisville’s blowout of Arkansas simply a product of five Razorback suspensions, which left John Pelphrey’s depleted roster full of walk-ons and golfers?

The answer lies somewhere in the middle.

"This team is very good," Pitino said. "We're nowhere near our potential, and it's the best we've ever looked since I've been here in an opening game. My teams are very tough to watch the first few games of the season."

Six Cardinals scored in double figures against Arkansas—two more than last season’s opener against Morehead State. But the biggest contribution of the night came from one of the most unlikely of suspects.

Senior guard Reginald Delk, a Mississippi State transfer, racked up a game high 20 points off the bench in only 22 minutes. Delk’s previous career high was 10 points.

Louisville also got 12 points from senior Edgar Sosa and 10 from sophomore Jared Swopshire. Sosa averaged just over seven points per game last season while seeking a defensive identity. Swopshire averaged just one point.

No matter what crazy lineup Pitino threw at Arkansas, no matter what the substitution pattern was to keep the game close, Delk, Sosa and Swopshire threw it all off with—surprise, surprise—production.

However, Pitino did try his best to make Louisville’s first contest worthwhile. He started Delk and guard Preston Knowles out of the half, and the Razorbacks rallied from 14 down to make is a 48-45 game.

That didn’t last long, as by the time the next media timeout started, Louisville was up 65-48.

The Cardinals went on to blowout the Razorbacks and hold star shooter Rotnei Clarke, fresh off a 51-point performance against Alcorn State, to 16 points. That's with a roster that contains five freshman and five sophomores.

"I think it's just the result of us putting very few things in and getting better at what we put in earlier in the year," Pitino said. "We had to keep it very basic."

Pitino constantly tears his team down, claiming they can’t play defense early in the season.

The fact that he hasn’t yet mentioned the Cardinals’ inabilities may signal the underrated potential of this years squad.

And instead of leaving the early season with some noticeable scars, the Cardinals could be ready to provide Western Kentucky, UNLV, and Kentucky with some non-conference scares.

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Just Saying, Is All... | In Defense of Rick Pitino

Ryan Alberti — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:56:46 -0500

Winners are always vindicated.

Rick Pitino is a moral failure. He’s also a statistical success. As the young Louisville Cardinals gear up for the '09-'10 season, their disgraced coach can’t exactly lecture them on the importance of character—which would be worse news if character were more important in the grading system of college basketball.

Virtue means having to play by someone else’s rules.

Victory, on the other hand, means getting to write your own.

I’m not condoning Pitino’s behavior. Marriage is the most sacred of institutions, and Moses wasn’t kidding about the Seventh Commandment. But let’s not forget that fidelity is a relative concept. In a competition that rewards one contestant for stepping over another, you can’t fault a heel who’s only faithful to himself.

A corrupt tree bears evil fruit.

A corrupt profession breeds evil men.

If Pitino has a fatal flaw, it’s simply that he lives by the letter of his job description.

College hoops history is pocked by scandal. Recruiting violations, academic fraud, the life and times of Bob Huggins—it’s a parade of errors, a case study in sleaze. The reason, of course, is that boosters pay for ends before means. Bible-thumpers will argue that Pitino’s sins reflect poorly on his program. I’d counter that the riches of absolution are just a Final Four berth away.

Purity is good.

Performance is better.

Pitino may be rotten to the core, but at least he keeps things clean in the loss column.

We’re all creatures of circumstance. Conduct is guided by conscience; conscience is grounded in context. The truth is that Rick Pitino doesn’t need me to defend him, because the ethics of his profession have already done the deed. Every scoundrel is selfish in undermining the values of his community. The one with a seven-figure salary should be excused for overestimating the worth of his conceit.

Hermann Goering never brought home a Big East championship, but he did know a thing or two about the perks of triumph :

The victor will always be the judge, and the vanquished the accused.

Which suggests that Pitino ought not have flinched in the face of Karen Sypher's full-court press.

Because the best defense is a good offense, and any floozie who denounces a .737 career winning percentage is either extorting a cheater or only just saying, is all...

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