Jeff Borzello, Louisville News

LOUISVILLE PLAYERS PUT OUTSIDE DISTRACTIONS ASIDE

A scandalous offseason will not deter UL vets from concentrating on winning in 09-10

by JEFF BORZELLO

Louisville lost two players who were drafted in the lottery this past season. They return three starters from a team that received a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Sure, those would be headlines for most college basketball teams – but no one wants to talk about that right now when discussing Louisville.

The topic on everybody’s mind is the off-court issues that occurred in the offseason involving head coach Rick Pitino, extramarital affairs and extortion.

It’s the first thing that comes up when discussing Louisville’s hopes for the upcoming season – unless you’re talking with players on the team.

“It won’t be a distraction,” senior guard Jerry Smith said. “We move forward to the year.”

“Not at all,” added senior Edgar Sosa when asked if it would remain an issue heading into the year. “Coach P is focused on basketball and what’s to come.”

If it doesn’t end up being a distraction for the players on the court, Louisville has a chance to be a pretty solid team this season.

As mentioned above, though, they do have to replace Terrence Williams and Earl Clark, two forwards who were drafted No. 11 and No. 14 in June’s NBA Draft, respectively.

“We can’t replace them, you know, two lottery picks,” Smith said. “But we have a lot of young players who can help.”

Leading that group of young players is point guard Peyton Siva, but we he will have to fight for minutes behind Sosa. None of the freshmen will likely start, and how they react to their minutes will be a key to season.

“You have to rely on your leadership to make sure your freshmen don’t get down,” Pitino said. “It’s up to Edgar, Jerry and Preston [Knowles] to make sure they don’t get down.”

Sosa said that all of the newcomers will play, and Smith said that when they begin to get accustomed to college ball, the Cardinals will be better for it.

“We have youth, we have a lot of freshmen,” Smith said. “[It will take time for them to get used to the] system and the way Coach P works. But we have guys that willing to learn, guys that are eager to learn.”

One of the problem areas over the past couple of seasons has been consistency at the point guard position, mainly because of Sosa.

In the last game of his freshman season, he scored 31 points in an NCAA Tournament loss to Texas A&M. Unfortunately, since then, he has struggled to find the right mix between scorer and point guard.

With this being his last season and Siva coming in to push him, Sosa is eager to prove the doubters wrong.

“I prepared for this all summer,” Sosa said. “It’s definitely motivation, but it’s still up to me to go out there.”

Up front, the main man will be Samardo Samuels, who is poised for a breakout season in the post. He came into college with big-time accolades, but had a relatively quiet season last year, averaging 11.8 points and 4.9 rebounds per game.

“I think he can be an outstanding player,” Pitino said. “He has to be a double-figure rebounder this year.”

“Samardo needs to have a monster year,” Sosa added.

With all the potential problems – off-court issues, point guard play, inconsistency – it might seem like Louisville could struggle this season.

However, the Cardinals are very talented and all the negatives are likely to disappear if they can get off to a good start.

“It all comes with winning,” Sosa said. “All I’m worried about is winning.”

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