LOUISVILLE, Ky. � Preston Knowles sensed Louisville's season was at a turning point following an upset loss at Providence in January.
Fingers were getting ready to be pointed. He knew the team's hot start could vanish if the negativity was allowed to fester.
So the sometimes surly senior captain called a team meeting and did something he never could have imagined when he arrived on campus four years ago: He opened up.
"It was me trying to get myself out in open, it helped them in the long run," Knowles said. "I told them, 'I can't do this by myself. It's going to take every single last one of us.'"
Wins over West Virginia and Connecticut soon followed and the Cardinals were back on track. Chalk it up to just one more step toward maturity for a player who has endeared himself to his teammates for his hard work if not his not exactly touchy-feely ways.
Knowles and fellow senior George Goode will take their final home bows on Wednesday when the 11th-ranked Cardinals (22-7, 11-5 Big East) look for revenge against the Friars (14-15, 3-13). Knowles downplays the significance but hopes to do something he's rarely done during his career: try to drink in the moment.
He's never had time before, mostly because he never stops moving. Knowles is 6-foot-2 of kinetic energy. His defense off the bench as a freshman and sophomore help the Cardinals make back-to-back appearances in the NCAA regional final.
A hand injury blunted his progress as a junior. This season, on an unheralded team picked to finish eighth in the Big East, he's become one of the conference's best clutch shooters and a tireless worker at both ends of the floor.
"I think everybody has always had great respect for Preston on the court because of how hard he plays," said coach Rick Pitino. "They also realize that he has one motive in mind, it's not about him, it's about the team."
For proof just look at the key moments in Louisville's 62-59 win over Pittsburgh on Sunday.
With the score tied and 2.5 seconds remaining in regulation, he set a perfect screen to free up teammate Kyle Kuric for a layup. The shot was blocked, but Knowles wasn't done trying to get Kuric loose.
A minute into the extra period Knowles screened off Kuric's man, giving Kuric plenty of room to drain the go-ahead 3-pointer. It's a sequence Knowles predicted moments earlier.
"He said 'Kyle I'm getting you a shot, you'll be open,'" Pitino said.
It's the kind of selfless play that has become Knowles' trademark. While he leads the Cardinals in scoring, averaging 14.3 points a game, he's been the leading scorer just once in Louisville's last 11 games.
The Cardinals are 7-4 in those contests, partly because of Knowles' ability to get his teammates involved and find other ways to contribute when his shot isn't going down.
His lack of ego is in stark contrast to longtime teammate Edgar Sosa, who graduated last year. While Sosa was a talented player, he was often hung up on getting his numbers. Not Knowles.
"Preston has a chip on his shoulder and it's not about 'You're not as good as me,'" Pitino said. "It's about 'Your team is not as good as us, we're going to kick your butt.'"
It has taken years for Pitino to find a way to channel Knowles' fury in a positive direction.
While Pitino says he "knew what he was getting into" when he recruited Knowles out of George Rogers Clark High in Winchester, Ky., Knowles says he was "misunderstood" in high school.
His anger would sometimes get him in trouble. Rumors that he was difficult to control didn't help.
"You grow up in a small town in eastern Kentucky, you do anything wrong it can be blown out of proportion," Knowles said. "I felt like I was misunderstood. At one point I wasn't going to go to any school in Kentucky just because of that."
He found a home, however, at Louisville. Though he has struggled at times to stay out of Pitino's doghouse ? particularly because of what Pitino considers Knowles' sometimes lackadasical efforts in the classroom ? he has survived.
Did he have the career he thought he would have? Not exactly. Yet he understands why he had to wait his turn. He's played behind good players in his career. He knew he had to be ready when his opportunity to lead finally arose.
"I knew I had to grow up," he said. "I couldn't just be sitting in background."
He'll take center stage at home one final time on Wednesday. Don't expect him to get caught up in trying to be the hero. He got over that kind of stuff a long time ago.
"I'm not as focused on myself," he said. "If the team exceed its limits, then I am too."
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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