Pitino rebuilding Cardinals

Rick Pitino isn't afraid to throw the word around that strikes fear in basketball fans, especially at a basketball school that expects excellence.\nRebuilding.\nPitino has kept that in mind as he has coached Louisville this season. After a 10-1 start, the Cardinals hit a wall after an 82-62 loss at Kentucky Dec. 29. A stretch of inconsistent play followed and Louisville will come into Assembly Hall tomorrow to take on the Hoosiers having lost five of their last seven games.\nBut for Pitino that's expected, especially when you're rebuilding and the Cardinals have had to hit the road after spending the early part of the season on the road.\n"There's no such thing as a winnable game on the road for a rebuilding program," Pitino said. "Every game is a winnable game at home and every win on the road is an upset. That's how I have always looked at it."\nThis season the Cardinals (13-8, 4-6 C-USA) have lost five of their six road games and Saturday's game marks the start of a three-game road trip. In the middle of the conference season, Louisville will need every quality win it can manage to position itself for a spot in the NCAA Tournament.\nPitino has been here before, leading a little known Providence team to the Final Four in 1986 and rebuilding a Kentucky program in the early 1990s that was under probation when he got there.\nThe only place Pitino hasn't had success rebuilding was with the Celtics in the NBA. He had total control over personnel, but could not win. Now he finds himself at the other big time program in the state of Kentucky and with plenty of work to do.\nAlready, Pitino has been compared to John Calipari and what he did at Memphis over the past year. Both left for the NBA only to comeback to the college ranks. Calipari has Memphis on the national scene in his second season with the Tigers. Pitino doesn't see so much success in the Cardinals' near future.\n"I think we're just a little further behind than Memphis right now," Pitino said. "I think we're a year or so behind that process."\nOne person that has tried to speed up the process has been Reece Gaines, who is averaging more than 21 points per game in his junior season. Gaines typifies the Cardinals' attack, which is quick and likes to shoot three-pointers. He had 37 in a 67-64 loss to St. Louis Thursday at Louisville. \n"Their guys will come down and shoot the three off the first catch," Coach Mike Davis said. "Their big guys are strong and athletic. They play hard. It will be a tough game."\nGaines' play has made the recent losses more bearable for Pitino. Losses aside, Pitino says his team has made great strides since the start of the season.\n"I've seen great improvement in the last two weeks. At the beginning of the year there was tremendous fire but the execution was not there, which is what you expect from a first year team with all new players," Pitino said. "But in the last two weeks, our execution, on both ends of the floor has been significantly better."\nGaines is not alone. Luke Whitehead, a sophomore forward, is scoring nearly 11 points per game in the frontcourt and grabbing more than six rebounds per game. Erik Brown and Ellis Myles have also been consistent scorers for Louisville.\nBut Pitino doesn't have the depth his great Kentucky teams of the mid-90s had. He has had to adjust his game plan since Carlos Hurt suffered an injury and freshman forward Brandon Bender left the team in January.\n"We're going to have to play a lot of people for the rest of the season to stay out of foul trouble and to get people breaks since we are undermanned," Pitino said.\nAt such a critical time for the Cardinals, they probably don't want to have to face a team like IU, especially on the road. But Pitino knows this is part of the process if a team wants to get respect, especially if the team is rebuilding.\n"Although two (of the last three games) were losses, they were three of the better games of the season," Pitino said. "This is the part of the season you want to see that. When teams are evaluated come NCAA Tournament time, one of the things they are evaluated on is how they play at the end of the season."\nTalking this week about his schedule, Pitino pointed to this game as an example of how to get respect not only from the tournament selection committee, but also from the Louisville fan base.\nHe did it at Providence and he did it at Kentucky, advancing to two straight title games while winning it all in 1996. That's the pinnacle, but baby steps come first for Pitino and Louisville. It's all part of rebuilding.\n"That's why I booked Indiana," Pitino said. "It's a big game"