LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Just sitting around wondering what kind of weird nonsense we’ll see on Saturday when Virginia comes to the KFC Yum! Center to face Louisville. I know it is coming, based on my own experience with the series. I’ve seen all of the highlights.
There was the 13-point first half-debacle in 2015. The Mangok Mathiang game-winner in the very next meeting. The next game in Charlottesville, a 22-point loss to end a season in which Louisville had banned itself from the postseason. The next game in Charlottesville when Rick Pitino suspended Deng Adel and Mathiang, then got mad when I even mentioned Mathiang’s name after the loss. The five straight Virginia wins since then, three of them by double-digits.
And there was a game to end the regular season at the KFC Yum! Center last year. I can’t remember exactly how that ended, but I remember it was pretty weird.
Actually, Chris Mack, then-Xavier coach, watched that ending. What was his thought?
“I remember thinking, ‘How can a team not inbound the ball?’ Mack said.
Har, har, har. (You see what he did there. If you don’t, watch the closing seconds of Louisville’s win over Clemson six days ago.)
Dark humor aside, Louisville is coming off back-to-back anemic offensive performances, looking to get well against a team that ranks No. 3 in the nation in defensive efficiency, a team that plays slower than any other team in the nation, the only team in NCAA Division I averaging fewer than 60 possessions per game in adjusted tempo, according to Ken Pomeroy’s website.
These guys play slower than J.B. Holmes. Slower than that one car in the far left lane on the Watterson Expressway when you're in a hurry.
Look at Louisville’s last two games. It shot 35 percent in its win over Clemson. It shot 26 percent in its loss to Syracuse. Virginia opens as a 6.5-point favorite on Louisville’s home court. The over-under is 12. No, wait, it’s 123. Still pretty low.
“We played two of the better defensive teams in our league the past two games, completely different from one another,” Mack said. “Fortunately, we play a team that’s not as good defensively tomorrow.”
That’s more humor from Mack, everybody. He’ll be here all week.
But seriously, after the Syracuse loss, Louisville’s players got together without coaches to talk about what was happening. Senior Khwan Fore said that players talked about playing together better, playing harder.
“We just talked about getting back to playing for each other more,” Fore said.
Regardless of the fix, Louisville is a team in need of confidence. It’s not that the Cardinals haven’t executed on offense early in the past two games, they got decent shots against the Syracuse zone early, it just looks as if they got discouraged when those shots didn’t fall, and let it affect their overall energy level – and energy has been on Mack’s mind heading into the team’s final four regular-season games.
“I wasn’t privy to the meeting,” Mack said. “My biggest concern has been our energy level. I don’t think there’s ever been a time when our team hasn’t played for each other or hasn’t been together. But I think our energy level hasn’t been the same in the last couple of games. Probably a little bit of hangover from the Duke game. But at some point our group has to worry about games in the windshield and not the rear-view mirror. . . . Hopefully the finality, as we come down to the last four games of the regular season and conference tournament and postseason tournament, there’s a different type of energy and spirit with our team. If there isn’t, then we’ll be one of those teams that collapses and you always shake your head. I do think the character in our locker room is a lot better than that, but our play and energy and spirit have to be reflective of that, with the quality of teams that we’re playing.”
Virginia is right near the top of that list of quality teams. Fore said that Louisville’s players – who have responded well to several such challenges this season – see home games against teams like Duke and Virginia as opportunities. Mack is hoping the Cardinals can ride that into an inspired and intelligent effort against the Cavaliers.
“We’ve got to be able to generate good shots for one another,” Mack said. “. . . They’re going to be very, very physical. They’re going to crowd the floor. They’re going to take great pride in keeping the ball in front of them on dribble penetration and they’re going to hard-hedge ball screens and trap the post. . . . They play a very unique brand on both ends of the floor.”
To succeed, Louisville needs to get back to the brand it established to open ACC play. And quickly. Lest more weirdness overwhelm it.
Copyright 2019 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved.
