Louisville Card File: Marshall

joaniecard“Curiouser and curiouser!” cried Alice.

Now that was one weird basketball game last night at the World’s Most Spectacular Arena, a harder fought than the score indicates 85-67 U of L W over the Thundering Herd.

At the media timeout with 7:32 to play in the opening half, the visitors in green, who routinely broke U of L’s press, had converted 8/11 from the field. Many open layups.

Yet, the poorly shooting Cards were still up 22-20.

Between then and the half — At which juncture, Louisville still was hitting less than 40% of its shots, and was a perfect 0/10 from beyond the arc — the Huntington Green felt the wrath of incessant Cardinal pressure. The C-USA squad proceeded to hit but 2 of its last 18 shots before the break.

Despite its stagnant to the point of moribunditude offense, U of L led 41-27 at intermission. The winners had tallied 14 off turnovers to nil given, having committed only 3 errors. Were up 10-2 on fast break points, 28-14 in the paint. But still had the look of a team struggling.

Bad shooting will do that.1

It was more of the same in this slugfest after the Friday Night Crowd had intermission time to refill its libations.

Bad shooting (37.5%), mediocre rebounding and an offensive flow that would have looked familiar the night before in the Downtown Y League.

Yet the Cards continued to force turnovers with its trapping pressure, and trundled ahead for the 18 point W.

It was just a hard game to figure out. But a paradigm of an early season learning experience. I’ll take these kind of tilts any time over beatdowns over Jacksonville State.

* * * * *

What made the in-artful, less than efficient offense so hard to fathom was this. The Rick obviously had put in some new sets, which U of L tried to run early on, but were nowhere to be seen as the offense devolved into dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, jack a jumper.

Marshall’s D was set up to force outside shots, and Louisville, for the most part, chose not to impose its will and work the rock inside.

* * * * *

There were thirteen consecutive misses from Treytown and 25:33 off the clock, before walk on David Levitch drained the Cards’ first three. The Cards canned but 2 of the 8 that came after.

* * * * *

As reported last time out, reports of Wayne Blackshear’s demise, fostered by his performance against Minnesota, were woefully premature.

WB was ACTIVE from the get go. His numbers at halftime: 12 points. 5 rebounds. 3 steals. 2 blocks. He did not let his poor shooting get in the way of giving maximum effort.

* * * * *

Allow me to shout out their names. Those of the zebras.

Les Jones, Jerry Heater, William Humes.

Your whistles worked. We got that. You didn’t have to keep blowing them every time a defender breathed on the man he was guarding.

Ticky tacky, ticky tacky.

* * * * *

Chinanu Onuaku had another stealth double double, the second of his three game career.

10 points. 11 boards.

His runnin’ podner, Mango Mathiang, also grabbed 11 rebounds.

* * * * *

SPOILER ALERT!!! SPOILER ALERT!!! SPOILER ALERT!!!!

Louisville did not hit its FTs.

28/44. 64%.

I do not feel I need to explain how I feel about that. The subject has been covered ad nauseum.

* * * * *

I’m wondering if it wasn’t the second team pep band there last night?

Whether or not, the band sounded like U of L’s offense looked.

* * * * *

Sigh. The song I believe is the greatest in all of rock, Springsteen’s “Thunder Road,” was thumped by AC/DC in the Fan’s Choice.

— Seedy K