After Pitt’s last netted three with 7:39 left, the Panthers led Louisville 62-59.

The Cards answered immediately when Reyne Smith blocked a visitor’s shot, Terrence Edwards snared the ball, whipped it ahead to J’Vonne Hadley along the sideline, who found James Scott charging down the lane for a fastbreak slam.

It was the beginning of a 20-6 closeout for the Cards.

Which skein was ignited by five consecutive defensive stops after a Pat Kelsey timeout. Aided, let’s be honest here, by a bunch of Panthers who felt compelled to launch ill advised early shot clock triples.

In the end, Louisville finished with an 11 point 79-68 win.

The one-has-to-assume tournament bound Cardinals stand 23-6 (16-2).

Which is good. Obviously.

But, big picture, given the Cardinals’ sorta decline last few times out, there appear to be reasons for concern vis a vis success in the tourney against competition significantly better than that recently.

When it comes to the Dance, flaws are magnified.

U of L’s defense has not been as stalwart, or as tenacious as when they were throttling schools a few weeks back. Teams have discovered they can pick on Reyne Smith at that end of the court. The Cards can’t seem to cut off drives down the lane.

A zone, if only for a possession or two to make the other team hesitate, would seem to be something to employ. But, hey I’m just an octo-observer, while the Ameliorator Pat Kelsey is a Coach of the Year candidate.

Tired after a long arduous campaign, the Cardinals don’t seem to be diving on the hardwood for loose balls with the same ferocity as early on.

Offensive rebounding is just about non-existent.

Saturday night in front of a legit color-regimented 18,459, U of L nabbed only three of their misses. While Pitt snared 12 of theirs. Resulting in a 14-4 Panther advantage on 2d chances.

Not good. Not good at all.

The Cards are becoming ever sloppier with the orange. Twelve giveaways resulted in 17 marks for Pittsburgh. While U of L scored ten on 11 takeaways.

The Cards ended up netting 71% at the charity stripe. 22/31. Scott again brought down the average, missing all four of his takes. Not mentioned to rag on the kid, but foes are figuring out that fouling him on those dunks can be a benefit.

U of L only got 3 points off the bench, a Noah Waterman trey.

Actually, in a turnabout from how things usually go with this gang, most all the scoring came from Edwards and Hepburn. Literally, they totaled 60 of the Cardinals 68.

TE 23. Along with a team high 7 rebounds.

 * * * * *

Chucky Hepburn gets his own section here.

Don’t believe I need to explain why.

37 points. 9/11 from the field. 6/6 from beyond the arc. 13/17 at the line. 4 rebounds. 4 assists.

As for those threes. You remember those, right? Tee hee.

The first was the Cards’ initial Seedy K Answer™️ of the night, to retake the lead in the 1st, 24-22. His second and third and fourth came on the ensuing possessions. (But Pitt responded each time.)

I have to assume there were only a few Cardinal fans whose immediate thought was not: Luke Hancock.

Skipping a possession, two of those JS errant FTs, the Chucky Blast continued. Next two trips, an off balance bomb, followed by a step back sidetwister missile. 39-29.

But, due to U of L’s ineffectiveness on D, Pitt ran off the next four to pull with six at the break.

Which is not to in any way diminish the amazingness of the Chucky run.

I can think of only one other run by a Cardinal in history that matches it. In a Saturday afternoon game in the 70s, Wesley Cox couldn’t miss against Bradley or Wichita State maybe. Threw ’em in from everywhere. It was absurd.

Chucky on Saturday night was beauteously absurd(er).

 * * * * *

After intermission, the game always seemed in peril.

Especially at 72-66 when Jeff Capel called a timeout at 2:07.

So, we are grateful for Pitt’s propensity to gun it from distance out of the offense. And that Smith, Edwards and Hepburn were the ones at the line down the stretch, hitting 6/6 for the Dub.

 * * * * *

Bottom Line: What a joy it is to contemplate the areas that need improvement for a 23-6 Top 25 Louisville Cardinals basketball team.

Huzzah!!!

— c d kaplan