LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- There are moments in games that make all the difference between winning and losing, between getting momentum or giving it away. For the Louisville men's basketball team, a key moment in Wednesday night's 83-70 win over North Carolina came with about 2 ½ minutes left.
Let's take a deeper look.
Louisville led by four and had just gotten a stop. Cardinals' point guard Chucky Hepburn walked the ball up the court, a bit more slowly than usual. When he crossed halfcourt, Louisville coach Pat Kelsey got the team's attention and shouted out a play call.
Hepburn kept dribbling high out on the Cardinal logo at midcourt, taking his time. After hearing the play call, Reyne Smith, standing just above the key on the left side, pointed to Noah Waterman to cut from where he was to the opposite corner, away from the Cardinal bench.
Hepburn kept dribbling. Smith, who had made a big three in transition about five minutes prior, then moved into the lane to set a screen for James Scott cutting up toward Hepburn, to set a screen for the point guard, the same high ball screen Louisville had used a good bit.
Having set his screen, Smith, now in the lane below the free-throw line, then curled behind North Carolina guard R.J. Davis to set a middle screen, again, of the kind he'd set routinely in the game, usually popping out of it to the area of the key for a three-point attempt.
But this time, Smith bailed on the screen and cut sharply toward the baseline, then curled around an exit screen from Waterman, who had edged up from his space in the corner. Waterman made contact with Davis, Hepburn delivered a pass to Smith, and Smith buried another one to put Louisville up seven.
The arena erupted. Louisville was energized. Adrenaline coursed through the KFC Yum! Center, and Louisville did not look back.
"When Reyne hit that shot, it was that Yum! roar that I've talked about so much since I got here," Kelsey said. "It was a major, major impact on the game."
And it was no accident. It took advantage of Smith having set that middle screen a handful of times during the game, often popping out to the top to be in position for a three-pointer, so that when he did something different, and dove to the baseline, the defense didn't react immediately. Kelsey credited Mike Cassidy for making the call to run that set.
"It was an unbelievable call," Kelsey said. "We kind of ham-and-egg it a little bit on the sideline in terms of calling sets and, you know, ATOs (after timeouts) and things like that. Well, we were running a certain action where we were running a middle pick-and-roll with back screens, with our shooter, Reyne Smith, in the middle. And (on that play) we ran an action that looks very similar. But instead of Smith stepping up and setting a back screen, he ran off of the baseline, acting like a baseline screen. And it was just kind of a good little change of pace. They weren't ready for it and Reyne, you know, found a little ray of light. Chucky found him. And it was a big shot."
It was a big moment. But there were others.
Defensive Dedication
Nothing was more important than the defense Louisville played late, holding North Carolina scoreless for more than 4:35 in a 12-0 run in the closing minutes.
Terrence Edwards Jr. is introduced in the starting lineup before Louisville's 99-54 win over Spalding in the KFC Yum! Center on Oct. 29, 2024.
"To beat a really good team, you have to close out the game with stops and rebounds," Kelsey said. "And that's what we were able to do. The guys just dug in some terrific defensive possessions toward the end. Even at that, with the game still in the balance, UNC ran a couple sets down and our guys were suffocating on defense."
No one delivered more defensively than Terrence Edwards Jr., who has been the team's top scorer in recent games. He drew most of the possessions against Davis, who finished with on 4-14 shooting, just 1-of-5 from three-point range. He also had four turnovers.
"Terrence Edwards, who's been phenomenal for us scoring the ball, I didn't even know that he was 2 for 12 from the field and only had seven points, because his defensive performance and effort were so outstanding. He wasn't the only guy that guarded (Davis), but he guarded him the majority of the time."
The big moment for Edwards? It might have been New Year's Eve. While most of the known world was partying, Edwards was watching video. Louisville defensive coordinator Brian Kloman's phone kept buzzing (or pinging, no word on how the coach has his phone set.)
"One thing that we wanted to do is try to have a guy with a little bit more size and length on (Davis)," Kelsey said. "And Terrence really accepted that challenge. He was excited about it. I mean, Coach Kloman called me last night. He goes, 'Man Fat's called me several times, and he's texting me, studying the scouting report, studying video and little nuances that he's seen.' So that dude was locked in, and he had an amazing performance."
Louisville is going to win games and lose them over the next several months. The team is going to play well with great attention to detail at times (like Wednesday night, when it turned the ball over only eight times against one of the fastest-paced teams in the nation), and at other times it may look sluggish.
It's helpful to remember that the kind of extra time Edwards put into his defensive assignment is happening. That the kind of wrinkles Louisville employed to get the right guy the right shot at the right time at North Carolina are being discussed and tried.
These are things that haven't been seen around here in a while. And they're the kind of things that can create a winning vibe in what often has been a subdued arena in recent years. It's a moment worth appreciating.
Louisville Basketball Coverage:
- BOZICH | Where do Kelsey, Pope, Calipari, May rank among 15 first-season Power 5 coaches?
- BOZICH | Louisville's 5-star grit topples North Carolina, 83-70
- Louisville introduces 5-star signee Mikel Brown in style; his agent, Christian Dawkins, smiles
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