By Aaron Williams–

A team meeting held by the players of the University of Louisville men’s basketball team after the 90-59 loss to Providence seems to have gotten its message across. The Cardinals rallied back at home on Saturday afternoon with a 76-59 victory against DePaul in front of a raucous crowd. Louisville’s conference record improves to 2-3 with the win and 14-3 overall.

Sophomore guard Russ Smith led the way for the Cardinals with 25 points on 10-22 shooting.

“The team meeting soothed a lot of things that we were having trouble with on the court. The meeting worked out in our favor,” said Smith following the game.

Head coach Rick Pitino stressed that the team meeting was players only following the game.

“We have five to seven meetings a year. They are very good. They need to talk. We don’t let Andre (McGee) or anybody in there. It’s just them. I wanted them to talk about it and do something about it and take ownership of this team,” said Pitino.

Louisville certainly owned their home court on Saturday. Rather than fall into half court offensive play like they did against the Friars, the Cards pushed the break and got out into transition. The frantic pace was a perfect opportunity for guards like Russ Smith and junior Peyton Siva to fill up the stats sheet. Siva, who is also said to have led the team meeting, spoke on preferring up-tempo play to set offense following the game.

“I’d way much rather play an up-tempo pace because you just go out there and have fun and run. I think that’s what’s been missing from us. We weren’t having fun. We looked real stagnant in the half court. Coach really wanted us to get out there and run today.”

Siva had only one assist and one steal against Providence but bounced back with seven assists and six steals for the Cards against DePaul.

After having lost four of the last five previous games, the DePaul win prevented the Cardinals from earning themselves a three-game home losing streak. The Cardinals may not have started off 2012 quite as they would have liked, but head coach Rick Pitino was quick to stress that losses like Providence constitute only one of a thirty game season.

“It’s one game. Their effort has been phenomenal all season, the execution hasn’t,” said Pitino.
The head coach also went on to describe goals he has set for his team as the conference schedule moves forward. These included winning every home game and two road games.

Now the Cardinals must face the most difficult stretch of their Big East schedule with two match-ups against No. 1 Syracuse and a trip to Cincinnati looming large.

sports@louisvillecardinal.com
Photo: Eric Voet/The Louisville Cardinal