I have not come to testify/ About our bad bad misfortune
Those are the first lyrics Brother Greg sang on the Allman’s first album.
What’s fascinating is that he spent the rest of his/ their career doing just that.
Given the Cardinals decimation, I fear we shall be doing the same.
Buuuuuuuuuuut . . . let me not bury the lede regarding U of L’s conference opener.
If not to the maximum of the current available players’ ability, on Sunday evening U of L played almost as well as can be reasonably expected.
As was inevitable, they simply wore down.
There are 200 player minutes in a game.
Down three of the their top seven guys, U of L has only 150 top level minutes available from the squad for the time being.
Duke 76, Louisville 65.
* * * * *
The turn came with 10:36 left when the Cards were up 55-50.
Cooper Flagg — Heard of him? — who at the time led the Blue Devils with 14 and 9 (finished with 20 and 12) went to the bench with four fouls.
Duke knotted it 55 at 9:27. Went ahead for good against the tired, fraying Cards at 8:46.
They spurted to a 13-2 run, forcing a Cardinal timeout at 7:02, down 6. The Blue Devils had drained their last nine shots.
The victors outscored the ever game Cardinals 26-10 to finish the game.
* * * * *
U of L started steady.
And hot.
Really hot.
The Cardinals were up 30-21 at the 7:44 break of the 1st.
At which juncture, they were 10/14 (71%) from the field. 8/11 (73%) from beyond the arc.
From the field in toto, they were but 9/37 the rest of the way, making only 3 of their last 20 triples. Going 16/21 (76%) at the line kept them within shouting distance.
Remember the long and tall and supremely talented Blue Devils have the nation’s #1 defensive efficiency numbers.
To get to that 3/4s mark, U of L had to survive a 5:59 drought from late in the 1st through its third possession of the 2d, while maintaining 40-35 lead.
* * * * *
The weariness manifested itself most noticeably with giveaways.
15 total. Rookie laden Duke only had 7. Points off those turnovers. 20 for the Blue Devils, 8 for the Cardinals.
-12.
The final deficit was 11.
Make of it what you will.
Then there’s this, Duke outscored the Cards by 20 in the paint, 34-14.
* * * * *
Terrence Edwards, the last of the fightin’ seven Cards who played to enter the game, led the team in scoring with 21 (6/12, 3/4, 6/6).
Reyne Smith tallied 13. U of L’s other sub, freshman Khani Rooths had 10 and 6.
James Scott andJ’Vonne Hadley had 8 rebounds each.
* * * * *
U of L actually played pretty good defense.
What they didn’t do was play any zone, which I thought might be an energy saving tactic. Shows what I know.
What they did do was stay competitive with a legitimate Top 10 (or better) foe.
From where I’m sitting, you really can’t ask for anything more.
— c d kaplan
Didn’t see it but love the tie in/analogy w Gregg and Cross To Bear. Apt.
Them:Too big, too deep, too strong and too talented!
Us: too roster thin, too fatigued too turnoverish and too basket deprived. Kudos to the Cards for intense play.
Agree about the possibility of playing zone. Conserve energy and also felt like good strategy against the Duke offense once they started making shots. I doubt we will see any zone, it’s not in the Kelsey playbook. Good effort for the Cards, we will see some ACC wins.