Aguadilla, Puerto RicO – When it was all over, Andre Hollins and the rest of his Minnesota teammates stood on the makeshift court, holding their game-worn jersey tops and posing for pictures as they gave them, as planned, to members of the Coast Guard present at the Armed Forces Classic.
"They sacrifice so much," the senior said. "Just giving away our jersey to them might brighten their day, put a smile on their faces."
It would be hard to blame the Gophers, though, if they couldn't wait to get rid of the sweat-soaked duds.
A father-son matchup that looked lopsided on paper looked even more unfair in person as Rick Pitino's No. 8 Louisville whipped son Richard Pitino's Gophers, 81-68 in an un-airconditioned, jam-packed airplane hangar on Air Station Borinquen in Puerto Rico.
Not much went right for Minnesota, but it was Louisville's stifling defensive pressure, led by ultra-quick guards Chris Jones and Terry Rozier, that really hurt. The Cardinals disrupted Minnesota early, and the Gophers never recovered. Rushed for most of the evening, Minnesota fouled 32 times, giving Louisville 29 points at the line, turned over the ball 18 times and shot just 40 percent from the floor.
"We fouled them [32] times and that was the game," Hollins said. "You don't foul a good team that many times and expect to win."
The Gophers could have helped ease the struggles at the line, but they couldn't sniff success there either, missing 13 of 33 opportunities in front of a crowd of 1,400 friends, family, local fans and members of the Coast Guard.
This year's team has four new members with large roles, and the youth showed. The younger Pitino later noted he thought freshmen Bakary Konate and Josh Martin "didn't look ready" to play.
"We've got to keep it all in perspective, we lost to a very good team," he said. "We can't get too discouraged from it. We've got to learn from it, we've got to understand it's a long, long process."
After trailing by 13 at the half, the Gophers, wearing night camouflage uniforms with golden lettering and stripes down the sides, found the hole too deep to climb from. Minnesota shot much better from the field and managed runs of 8-0, 6-0 and 10-2, but each time — hampered by the same mistakes that haunted them in the first — allowed the Cardinals to quickly undo their progress.
Louisville forward Montrezl Harrell made the difference, exploding off the court for easy scores at the rim, hitting long three-pointers and powering his way to 30 points, including 17 in the first half.
"He really expanded his game," center Mo Walker said. "He's got much more of a perimeter presence, shooting the jump shot and knocking them down, and he's still aggressive on the boards."
The buildup to this season opener has been months in the making, and ultimately Richard talked his Hall of Famer father — who has 26 years of head coaching experience on him — into the game, referencing the positive exposure it could give a program like Minnesota, which is ever struggling to build its brand.
In the end, the matchup mostly showed that the Gophers, though still potentially possessing a higher ceiling than last year's NIT champion squad, are still very much a work in progress.
"It's good to get these games out early, learn from them and improve," Walker said. "We've got a long season ahead of us."
When the game ended, the coaches shook hands and told each other they'd "see you later."
In fact, they'll be on the same charter flight Saturday morning, bound for Louisville, and the Gophers will continue on to Minnesota from there.
Normally, the day after a game day, father and son might discuss how their teams did, but asked whether the two would talk about this one, Rick Pitino hesitated.
"It was a nice event, but I really didn't want to play this game," he said.
"Because I hate the fact that we won. I hate the fact. We didn't want to open 0-1, but I didn't want my son to open 0-1. So, for all the exposure, it was great until the end of the game."
