Friday notes

Arguably the two most disappointing teams in the Big East square square off tomorrow night when Louisville takes on Pitt (I say arguably because Villanova may wish to throw its hat in the ring). Both teams are in dire straits and desperately need the win, though I won't use the phrase "must win" because it's overused, and in my mind, should mean something different than really really really want to win.

Beset with his own problems, Pitt coach Jamie Dixon is not feeling any sympathy for the banged up Cards, and seems quite up to date on UofL's scholarship situations. From the Pitt Post Gazette...

"They have a lot of guys on scholarship and a couple of extra guys as well. They have a lot of depth, a lot of players. They've got 15 players, 13 on scholarship and two others who have been on scholarship. Depth is something that stands out. They have an injury or two, but they started out with more players. I don't really think of it as a limited bench. They'll have plenty of guys on the perimeter as well as inside guys."

Take from it what you will, and of course he could just be keeping his team focused, but Dixon seems quite aware of Pitino's scholarship maneuverings in the off-season and may not be the biggest fan.

* Derek Willis is set to announce his decision at 4:00 this afternoon. You can watch here, but I wouldn't advise it, because this doesn't appear to be a closely kept secret; everyone reporting Willis will play at UK. Derek's AAU coach called into Matt Jones' radio show (again) today to offer his insider analysis, which basically amounted to him being given a forum to talk about how this is a complete disaster for Rick Pitino and offer opinions in that vein everything short of where Rick Pitino is currently holed away and crying over this turn of events.

I took away two things from it. One, his coach, an admitted UK fan, is clearly relishing his moment and again makes me wonder why this is being reported as a "slam dunk" recruit for UofL that Rick Pitino whiffed on. Both his dad and his coach expressed obvious antipathy for Pitino; so why is UofL being regarded as the once-heavy favorite for his destination? Two, his coach reported that "some of the things going on" around UofL right now swayed his decision. I agree, and essentially made the same point yesterday. No one should expect Louisville to clean up local basketball recruiting right now, there's just too much negativity swirling. But so long as Rick Pitino and Wyking Jones are doing their work elsewhere, the harm doesn't need to be great.

* But what can change the attitude and culture most quickly is winning basketball games. As in, tomorrow. Rick Pitino has said that Kyle Kuric is again "doubtful" for the game but we've seen that before. He could sit out, he could play 40 minutes. We'll just have to wait and see.

* Like everyone, I got a kick out of the CJs article that explored Russ Smith's record breaking rate of shot-selection.

* LouisvilleSportsLive takes a look at whether UofL is getting its money's worth with this coach. Pitino's enormous salary is always brought up when things go bad, though I don't think it has much to do with anything but raising the blood pressure of disgruntled fans. You cannot blame a bloke, however, for wondering what another coach given the same budget, salary and facilities could do with it on the recruiting trail.