By Chris Duncan
The Associated Press

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - With better depth at more positions, the biggest change second-year Louisville coach Rick Pitino expects from last season is how hard his players will fight for minutes.

"Any first year, what you're going to have is a limited number of players, and competition-wise, players know they don't have to give or go beyond 100 percent, because he knows he's going to get his playing time," Pitino said Thursday at the team's media day. "True competition is when you have no idea if you're going to play. It's based on what you do every day and how you compete.

"You see who has the most heart, and that's what we have this year."

The competition has already been fierce, even though the first organized practice isn't until Saturday.

Three Cardinals have suffered serious injuries in the past month playing in unsupervised pickup games that have become notorious for their intensity.

Sophomore forward Otis George broke his nose, junior guard Bryant Northern broke his non-shooting left hand and junior-college transfer guard Prileu Davis had his eye socket shattered by an elbow from senior guard Reece Gaines.

"They had to cut him from ear-to-ear, unravel his face, take his eyeball out. Then, they put his eye back in, his face back on and you don't even know he had anything wrong with him," Pitino said of Davis. "As a matter of fact, they've done some cosmetic things, and he looks a lot better."

The outlook for the season does, too.

All five starters return from a team that went a surprising 19-13 and reached the National Invitation Tournament.

New faces include highly regarded freshman guards Taquan Dean and Francisco Garcia, junior college transfer post man Kendal Dartez and Davis, a high-scoring guard from Arizona. Dean and Davis will compete with Northern, now on scholarship, and junior Alhaji Mohammed for the point guard position that was a weakness last season.

The biggest addition is former Kentucky center Marvin Stone, who transferred to Louisville last December.

Now leaner and built with chiseled muscle, the 6-foot-10 Stone won't be eligible to play until mid-December. When he does, he'll provide the inside presence the Cardinals sorely lacked in 2001-02.

"We now have a legitimate team in terms of numbers, in terms of having a low-post presence, and it'll be a lot more fun because we won't be as limited in what we can do," Pitino said. "We'll be a much better offensive team, we'll be a better defensive team, we'll have some shot-blocking."

All of that sounds great to Gaines, Conference USA's second-leading scorer last season, and a candidate for C-USA player of the year.

"I'm a senior now, and I haven't won very much, so my whole focus is on winning," said Gaines, Louisville's only fourth-year player. "As the leader of this team, my focus is winning and making sure that's the focus of the rest of the guys, too.

"Getting the guys in the mindset of winning is the most important thing to me."

The Cardinals appear to have done the job in the weight room. The nine returning lettermen and Stone all were sporting durable-looking physiques on Thursday.

The most noticeable transformation, however, was Luke Whitehead's hair. The junior forward trimmed the tightly wound braids he wore last year and replaced it with a more conventional buzz cut.

"It was time for a change," Whitehead said.

"A sign of maturity," Gaines said.

The Cardinals won't hold a midnight practice as they did last year. Instead, Louisville will hold a public practice Saturday afternoon at the downtown convention center.