When you have two legitimate Top 20 teams testing each other, it’s never inevitable.
But this U of L task in Knoxville against tall favorite Tennessee sure seemed close to that heading in.
Well coached top level foe at its sold out home.
One whose strength — inside scoring and rebounding — made it a bad matchup for the Cards, whose lack of inside depth and strength has been an Achilles heel from the get go.
That the Vols were hungry and angry coming off three straight Ls made a U of L victory seem an almost impossible task.
Then we learned that back issue of Mikel Brown’s is a problem.
He didn’t play.
Cards were toast before tip.
* * * * *
It was all evident by halftime — actually well before then.
It just takes a peek at a couple statistics.
Tennessee led by only 7, thanks to some tough Cardinal D. And UT’s woeful FT shooting.
27-34.
That inside game issue: Volunteers 28 points in the paint. Cardinals 10.
-18.
That’s right, Tennessee had more points in the paint at the break than Louisville had points total.
That lack of point guard issue: U of L had 9 FGs at intermission. Tennessee had that many assists on 15 buckets.
Louisville’s strength is depth. At least usually.
During the first 20 Tuesday, the Cards had zero points off the pine. Vols 22. (For the game, the disparity was 34-3. Khani Rooths hit a FT. Wild Man Zougris a garbage time slam.)
Another opening stanza reality that might have you feeling the need to clean your glasses.
Only three guys scored. Adrian Wooley with 12, Ryan Conwell with 11, and Sananda Fru with 4.
That’s it.
* * * * *
Louisville’s second half performance is not worth the bandwidth, my time to write about, nor your time to read.
The final, in a lopsided disappointing loss: 83-62.
There is no sugar frosting this. Against teams with major size and inside presence, Louisville has and will continue to struggle.
When your most talented player doesn’t suit up, it makes it more impossible to overcome.
— c d kaplan
Told ya I wasn’t overreacting about the Kansas game. This lack of inside game is a glaring weakness. It’s going to be the same against any truly well balanced elite roster with well developed inside presence. On defending us, defend our three’s and our guards drives and we got nothing else to go to. No backup plan. No low post game of significance. Sweet 16 is likely the ceiling. Hard to get hot from outside against elite teams capable of shutting down a one dementional (gimmicky?) offense.
Another observation. It is, to a degree, coaching. Fru, Rooths, and Pryor all appear to me to have the height and athleticism to at least be serviceable in the post, but there appears to be zero intention to develop them and that aspect of an offense. This is particularly true of Fru, who shows some nice low post moves, but is an after thought. It’s not even in the plan. Inside-out game? Forget about it. We’re not interested.
I suspected this, but Googled it to confirm. Every single assistant on the staff was a guard in their playing days. We don’t have a single coach on the staff with experience playing inside. None. Zilch. Nada. It shows. The entire mentality is perimeter game. The really good teams will shut that off like a faucet.
Agree about the post presence. There was one play where Fru appeared to be trying to post up, and the entry pass was knocked away because he didn’t use his body to seal his man off when calling for the ball. He has athleticism and skills but hasn’t learned how to use his body.
My concern is if anyone is adequately coaching these bigs on how to play in the post, and if we even have anyone on the staff good at coaching that. A short guy can coach post play if he is knowledgeable about it. (Pitino is an example) The concern is if the bulk of the emphasis in practice is on the perimeter and driving game at the cost of developing a low post presence. This offense badly needs more balance. The long athletic teams are scouting us and destroying what we are trying to do. They contest threes, get physical and blow up screens and cuts, and cut off passing lanes. PK said as much in his post game comments. “They muddy you up”, he said. Okay so what do we turn to for baskets when long physical athletic teams “muddy us up”? The answer usually is you turn to getting some baskets in the low post to keep the defense more honest.
Hasn’t Kelsey taught our guys how to play zone. Too many easy dump downs to that big guy Carey. Should have fouled him a lot more like Hack-a- Shaq. Yes I know zone leads to offensive rebounds but come on change things up . Please
For all of those who said the absence of Brown Junior would not have made a difference could not have been more wrong .
He Is the only guy who has the talent to either shoot from the three or drive and kick out to open threes. Without him the whole defense collapses into the paint, forcing contested threes
He wouldn’t have made that much difference. He’s shooting in the 20’s from 3 point range. He has looked great at times, and not so great at others. There is no guarantee he would have had enough impact to make it a close game. In fact the examples are there that he probably would not have. I give you Arkansas and Kansas. Two similar teams to Tennessee, both of which essentially boat raced us. Sure the score probably would have been maybe 7 – 10 points closer.
BTW, I have no idea what you mean here…
“Without him the whole defense collapses into the paint, forcing contested threes”
A defense collapsing into the paint would result in wide open threes. Do you realize “the paint” is slang for the free throw lane? The inside.
You are correct. I should have said paint area
Everyone’s an expert after the fact .. more doom and gloom and coaching malfeasance ‼️we must be talking about our football 🏈 team but nooooo – we’re talking about Cardinal Baskets post – Kenny Payne era – listen to you all i – doomed before tip –
i get that We apparently are a bad matchup against Bigger teams – especially on road – no doubt – I also get that this love affair with our Virginia NIL prize reminds me how much some loved that Scott guy last year – IMO McThreely looks like McClunky – I’ve never heard louder rim clunkers on a TV telecast than last night –
But I wholeheartedly support and believe in Pat Kelsey & even if googled we seem diminutive in our assistants size – it’s still all a learning process! Whatever expectations all of us may have – what matters is getting better ‼️How many here expected our stellar ACC record last year – we haven’t even begun Conference Play ‼️We know we have a tougher conference schedule but let’s get Mikell healthy and rejoice in how well Wooley is playing / giving us 3 legit scorers –
I’ve seen this movie before .. it’s December 17th – am guessing we may have more perspective by the end of January ‼️
I am pretty clear we’re a really GOOD home team & let’s cut Kelsey some slack ‼️
Happy Holidays everyone
I agree and when Brown is back that will help, I’m quite sure Pat will utilize a different approach to bigger inside guys. Breathe , and keep the faith.
Tennessee was well rested. Louisville can wear teams down , when shots fall , defense is easier also then.
While I do agree with most of your assessment, people are entitled to discuss and point out glaring deficiencies. We are entitled to being disappointed in what we are seeing, as Seedy said in his second post. We are not obligated to keep our mouths totally shut. We are not obligated to be polyannas. We are entitled to have lofty expectations for one of the top ten elite basketball programs of all time. Especially those of us who pay thousands of dollars for tickets so players and coaches can be paid millions. As for those very few questioning if PK can get it done, of course he deserves a reasonable amount of time to figure things out. That doesn’t mean we can’t be disappointed in what we are seeing now, however. It doesn’t have to be all one or the other. We can be disappointed, and still support the coach and players getting better.