SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Maybe Louisville coach Rick Pitino needs to borrow the tough-love approach Notre Dame coach Mike Brey used the past few days.

After a hard week in which Brey threatened that everyone's spot in the lineup was up for grabs and which saw him throw a player out of practice, the Irish followed their worst loss in nine seasons under Brey with their best game of the season, beating No. 5 Louisville 90-57 on Thursday night to end a seven-game losing streak.

"Coach got into us and the players got into each other, too, which was great," said Luke Harangody, who led the Irish with 32 points and 17 rebounds. "We need that kind of tough love."

Pitino, saying he can't remember the last time a team of his was beaten so thoroughly, said the problem is his team hasn't been listening to him and hasn't been practicing with a purpose.

"I'm a big believer in you reap what you sow," Pitino said. "Samardo (Samuels) in practice catches the ball and just goes in and dunks it. Just goes in and scores. If you let Samardo do that every single time down the court in practice, how are you going to stop Luke Harangody?"

The Cardinals (18-5, 9-2 Big East) couldn't stop anyone as the Irish (13-10, 4-7) shot 54 percent — their best shooting game of the season and the worst game defensively for Louisville.

Pitino credited the Irish for their play, but clearly was upset with his team. Asked if he would skip having the team watch the tape because the game was so lopsided, Pitino said he would make them watch.

"Because they humiliated themselves they're going to watch it again," he said.

Brey talked to his team before the game, saying he thought the Irish had been the victim of "identity theft" because someone had stolen Notre Dame's offensive identity. He said his team took that to heart.

"This group really knows how to play on the offensive end. They've been playing together for a while," he said. "I don't know if we were doing that as a unit as much in this stretch."