LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — It was the kind of loss — DePaul 62, Louisville 55 — that made University of Louisville fans turn the conversation to volleyball.
It was the kind of performance that made you question if an offensive philosophy refined in New Zealand translates to the top tier of American college basketball.
It was the kind of result that even Vince Tyra and Dr. Neeli Bendapudi would agree was unacceptable — if Chris Mack’s three-loss basketball team is serious about its announced intention of returning to the NCAA Tournament.
The Cards made a third of their shots in the first half after suffering through a 1 for 19 stretch — and then shot the ball worse in the second half.
Seven different players combined to miss a dozen consecutive 3-point field goal attempts over a bleak 8 1/2 minute stretch.
The Cards shot 3 free throws in 40 minutes and had eight of their shots swatted away by an opponent that played with the force required to win games in the Big East.
“Three damn free throws is insane,” Williams said. “That’s insane. Playing in the paint is part of the game of basketball if you want to be successful on the offensive end.”
The final result was a second home defeat before the Cardinals (6-3) even move into the Atlantic Coast Conference portion of their schedule.
How’s this for a flashing light when you begin the entirely too early process of evaluating Louisville’s NCAA Tournament resume?
Louisville has lost home games to Furman and DePaul, teams ranked No. 116 (Furman) and No. 99 (DePaul) in Ken Pomeroy’s computer power rankings when the Cardinals played them.
I checked Pomeroy’s numbers. Over the last 10 seasons, Louisville had not lost any home games to an opponent with a Pomeroy ranking worse than No. 48.
That was 2012, when South Florida beat the Cards 58-51, inspiring Rick Pitino to cancel Senior Night post-game activities. I said inspiring because after Louisville lost at Syracuse in its final regular season game, the Cardinals won the Big East Tournament and rolled to the Final Four.
I’m not predicting a canceled Senior Night or a Final Four run for this team. I will predict Mack will take more control of the offense from Ross McMains, the assistant he recruited from New Zealand to put more gusto in the U of L attack.
The 55 points were reminiscent of the 5 games Louisville lost while scoring less than 60 last season.
Gusto is wonderful. Showing strength around the rim, creating more old-fashioned higher percentage shots and getting more than two players (Dre Davis, who shot two and Matt Cross, who took one) to the foul line would also be dreamy.
“We have to figure something out, three free throws is ridiculous,” Mack said, crisply after the game.
“We have to be able to play through contact and when we get bumped, we have to be able to hang on to the basketball and quit turning over the damn ball when a guy knocks into us.
“The easy thing to do is to say we aren’t shooting well. We have to get the ball in the paint. Period. It is my job to figure it out.”
He is correct.
His job, not McMains’ job.
He is correct.
Three free throws is ridiculous.
He is correct.
The Cards committed too many turnovers (15) and an opponent out-rebounded them for the fourth time this season.
Malik Williams was mostly masterful. He made 10 of 15 shots. He grabbed 8 rebounds. He ran himself into exhaustion. He scored a career high 22 points and led the team with 3 steals.
But Williams was not the best player on the floor. DePaul forward David Jones was. His 33 points were more than double his season average. And at 6 feet 6 and 195 pounds, Jones punished Louisville with 14 rebounds five on the offensive end.
“You got to guard,” Williams said. “Thirty-three and 14 is ridiculous, I don’t care who we are playing against. “We need somebody to step up and say, ‘I got him.’ “
That would have helped. So would some assistance for Williams. Subtract his numbers and the rest of the Cardinals shot 13 for 59, which is 22%.
Won’t work, even on a night when DePaul made less than 37 percent of its attempts and went 6 for 28 while shooting as many crazy three-pointers as the Cards, who were 7 for 33.
That was also alarming. DePaul won without playing phenomenal basketball. Just tougher basketball.
Here is another mystery: A reasonable person would consider forwards Samuell Williamson and Jae’Lyn Withers two of the five most talented players on this team.
They combined for zero points while playing less than 20 total minutes against the Blue Demons. Withers, who has not scored double figures since the Mississippi State game, did not start for the first time this season.
“They're not playing a whole lot of minutes right now and they'll play more minutes when they play better,” Mack said.
“They’re both talented players and we need more out of them and they're just as frustrated as we are for them. We go with the guys that we feel are effective and no one was very effective other than Malik (Williams) tonight.”
Chris Mack was correct about that, too. With road games against Western Kentucky and Kentucky looming over the next two weeks, we’ll see how he fixes it.
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