LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Monday, they were flatter than a soda left out overnight.
Saturday, they brought the fizz.
This was the same Louisville basketball team that spent 40 minutes at Duke looking like it had walked into the wrong gym and was too polite to leave. Same jerseys. Same shoes. Different universe.
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You remember Monday. It was a horror movie without the popcorn. The kind of game where the DVR gets offended. They were out-rebounded, out-hustled, out-defended, out-scored and very nearly out of adjectives.
Coach Pat Kelsey called it a “butt-kicking.” Actually, he called it that so many times the FCC filed a formal complaint.
So, what do you do after you get run over by a Blue Devil freight train?
“Freaking football practice,” Kelsey said. “It’s one of those where it's like, clear the board. Compete. I don't care who starts.”
No playbook. No flair. Just blood, sweat and whistles.
And it worked. Saturday against SMU, the Cardinals didn’t just respond. They barked, they bounced, they bolted. They made the plays Duke made against them, diving, tipping, slashing, crashing. They passed the ball like it was hot and they’d been burned before.
Which they had.
Mikel Brown drives for two of his team-high 20 points in a win over SMU.
Even during a sluggish start, Kelsey just blamed some bad turnovers and good looks that didn’t go down. Louisville trailed by 12 early, but it got a wake-up call from Khani Rooths.
The sophomore had missed four straight games with an illness. But once he came in, things started to happen. And when he scored on a thunderous follow slam, Rooths lit the fuse. The arena went from restless to roaring. It was the kind of athletic play Louisville has been missing in recent weeks, and it ignited his teammates.
“That's kind of how sports is, right?” Kelsey said. “I call him the catalyst. He can really ignite us and get us going and that's something we missed while he was out, just his charisma, the way he carries himself. . . . I even called a timeout once, so I didn’t have to take him out. That’s how valuable he was.”
Rooths said he’s been putting in extra time since getting the go-ahead to come back from his illness. Kelsey joked that he needed to eat some hamburgers to add some lost weight.
“I definitely ate several hamburgers,” Rooths said. “I like hamburgers anyway, so get it back. … I was trying. I was trying to come out here and show y'all that it ain't no lag, you know? Coming out and seeing the same Khani. Even better.”
Not only did Louisville get back Rooths, but it got Mikel Brown back on track. The freshman shrugged off an off night at Duke, as well as a brief illness this week. The Florida kid still hasn’t acclimated to Kentucky weather? Saturday was 20 degrees and angry. But once he got warm, so did Louisville.
Kelsey gave him the ball and said, essentially: fix it.
And he did. After a shaky start (five turnovers in the game’s first 10 minutes), Brown scored 20. Hit big threes. Controlled tempo. Closed it out like a night watchman turning off the lights. When SMU tried to come back, Brown turned into a one-man neighborhood watch.
Ryan Conwell celebrates a three-pointer in Louisville's win over SMU on Jan. 31.
“I got really smart,” Kelsey said, “and gave the ball to Mikel Brown and got out of the way. ”
He also finished with four assists – set the table for Isaac McKneely for a back-to-back dagger threes and made one of his own -- and was involved in nearly every important possession down the stretch, isolations, drive-and-kicks, clutch threes, and pace control.
That’s a big evolution from Monday, when Brown — like the rest of the team — tried to force things.
“I talked with Coach after that one, and he just said, ‘Let the game come to you,’” Brown said. “Tonight, he told me, ‘It’s takeover time.’”
As to the biggest difference offensively between Saturday’s success and the Duke downfall (besides Duke being Duke)?
“We passed the freaking ball,” Kelsey said, pounding the table for emphasis. “We were trying to shoot our way out of trouble against Duke instead of executing our way out.”
The other difference was defensive energy. SMU had only two assists in the second half. Louisville had 11. The Cards outscored the Mustangs 25–3 in bench points after halftime. And for all the razzle of Rooths and rhythm of Brown, the win was built on something more primal, defense, rebounding, and response.
Louisville changed its defensive looks. Did some trapping. Even snuck in two zone possessions (SMU scored on both).
But in the end, it wasn’t anything new schematically. Kelsey said his team just stuck to its principles better.
“We don't have the (ACC) defensive player the year like we had last year,” Kelsey said. “So our defense has to be try-hard. We’ve got to be on it. We have to be assignment impeccable. We have to play with great intensity. And I thought our guys did that tonight.”
After the game, players from the 1986 NCAA championship team came into the locker room. Robbie Valentine spoke. Milt Wagner spoke.
“I didn’t need to say anything,” Kelsey said.
That team was 15-7 and ranked No. 19 in the nation. A lot of people had written them off, but they had a fantastic freshman in Pervis Ellison. This team improved to 15-6 on Saturday, ranked No. 20 in the nation. It has a fantastic freshman and a lot of basketball left to play.
“Proud of our guys for how they responded to what happened down in Durham,” Kelsey said. “They responded exactly how I thought they would. Didn't blink, didn't panic, nothing. Just went back to work, dusted themselves off, got up, attacked practice, the details of the scouting report, stuck together and played their butt off.”
Louisville didn’t erase Monday. But they did answer it. Loudly. With rebounds and resolve. With burgers and back-cuts. With a sophomore dunking, a freshman directing, and a coach turning football drills into basketball belief.
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