CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A little after 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Wayne Blackshear and Montrezl Harrell walked into the Atlantic Coast Conference Media Day print interview room in their matching red Louisville polo shirts

It was the first time that the Cardinals — who played in the American Athletic Conference last season and the Big East before that — surfaced at an Atlantic Coast Conference event as a part of the conference. The two players found familiar faces right away.

Blackshear started jokingly trash talking with Pittsburgh’s Cameron Wright and Harrell gave Panthers guard James Robinson a big hug. Then the representatives from the former Big East programs chatted in the second floor of The Westin Hotel in Charlotte, North Carolina, taking a break from a day spent previewing the second year in which former Big East teams will influence the ACC’s on-court product.

“They play physical, and their vibe is pressure defense and the physicality is kind of different,” Adam Smith, a junior guard at Virginia, said at media day. “I think that kind of picked up the other ACC teams that were already here. Everyone is playing physical now and I think Louisville is going to add to that.”

With Maryland moving to the Big Ten and Louisville set to play its first ACC season in 2014-15, the conference now has four teams — including Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Notre Dame — that were part of the Big East basketball conference two years ago. The ACC now features four Hall of Fame coaches, as Louisville’s Rick Pitino joins Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski and North Carolina’s Roy Williams.

The consensus from players that saw the Orange, Panthers and Fighting Irish transition last season is that they brought a “grind-it-out” style of play and more physicality.

The teams that have played against the Cardinals expect that trend to continue.

“Some of the toughest games that I’ve been in in my college career have been against Louisville,” Syracuse guard Trevor Cooney said. “They’re tough with the pressure they put on and it’s tough to play against, you can ask any one that has.

” … They’re a great program, they are very, very well coached, and that’s what they’re going to bring to the conference. Just another great team and another great program.”

After winning the Big East championship and national championship in 2012-13, Louisville won the AAC championship last year, finishing 15-3 in conference and 31-6 overall.

The Cardinals’ season ended with a Sweet 16 loss to Kentucky in the NCAA Tournament and they return Blackshear, Harrell, Chris Jones and Terry Rozier, among others, for their first year of competition in the ACC.

Louisville’s former conference foes were scattered about the final regular-season ACC standings last year — Syracuse finishing second, Pittsburgh fifth and Notre Dame 13th.

“I don’t think we’re taking much of a look at that,” Blackshear said. “The Big East was a tough conference, I played in the Big East and Montrezl obviously did too, we know how it is and this reminds us of the Big East with all the powerhouse teams and good teams. We really know what’s ahead of us.”

For the Orange, Louisville joining the ACC offers a long-awaited shot at revenge.

The last time the two teams met was in the 2013 Big East tournament final, when the Cardinals erased a 16-point lead to eventually win by 17.

SU hosts the Cardinals on Feb. 18 at 7 p.m. in the Carrier Dome and it will be one of the many times that Big East roots clash on the ACC landscape this year.

Said Cooney: “It will be great for them to come back to the Dome, I know our fans don’t like Louisville that much.”

 

Published on October 29, 2014 at 1:53 pm

Contact Jesse: jcdoug01@syr.edu | @dougherty_jesse