No PG1, big problems. Louisville basketball struggled without its “quarterback” against Tennessee. What’s next?
For Louisville basketball, Tuesday night was an opportunity for Pat Kelsey to continue to elevate the ceiling of Louisville basketball. After suffering a 20-point loss in 2024-2025, the Cards were hoping to send a statement. A statement that the 20-point loss was nothing more than an anomaly. Something the Cards could learn from and come back to master – especially with a revamped team.
All seemed right until just moments before tip-off Louisville basketball announced starting point guard and 16 ppg scorer, Mikel Brown Jr., would miss the game with a back injury.
Just like that the “straw that stirs the drink” was gone for the Cards.
Drawing parallels to football
It was a grueling, up-and-down season for transfer portal quarterback Miller Moss at the University of Louisville. From October, on, Moss faced weekly questioning as to whether or not he was the right fit for the program, the right guy to be leading what was to be the most high-powered offense in the ACC. A two game conference home skid in early November, in which the Cardinals lost to California and Clemson by a combined four points, appeared to be the final straw: the internet was calling for Moss’ jersey, arguing that head coach Jeff Brohm should metaphorically punt the Moss project, and use backups for the remainder of the season.
Well, the internet got its wish: Moss was out during the SMU game due to injury, in which the Cardinals suffered by far their most staggering loss of the season, a 38-6 blowout that was painful to watch. Miller returned for the regular season’s closer against arch rival Kentucky, putting up 41 points in a shutting-up shut out that, for myself, anyways, cemented Moss’ value to the program and proved his power as a competitor.
Like missing your starting Quarterback
I say that to say this: regardless of what the numbers may look like, a team needs its quarterback. In its two losses prior to SMU, the Cards averaged only 22.5 points a game, and failed to take advantage of multiple opportunities to win the game in late offensive drives. There are tangible things that a team’s offensive leader does, and intangible things as well, and when a blowout coincides with a leader’s absence, the value of the latter really steps into the limelight.
The basketball team had what, I hope, anyways, was their SMU game on Tuesday night. Their proverbial quarterback Mikel Brown, Jr. was out with lower back pain, and the team played in complete disarray. While it’s not entirely the same situation (nobody was calling for Brown, Jr.’s jersey before the Tennessee game), the way the contest (and I use that word lightly) played out proves that the numerical contributions of a Mikel Brown, Jr, like a Miller Moss, are not the entire story of their value to their respective teams.
Story of the (no) contest
From the get-go, the Volunteers were in control. They managed to keep a seven to ten point separation for most of the first half, largely due to an extremely poor shooting performance by the visiting Cardinals. Tennessee dominated points in the paint, and won the field goal, rebounding, assist, and turnover battle.
The tell-tale statistic, though, was the three point tally: Tennessee made seven on eighteen attempts, while Louisville also connected on seven triples.
The difference, however, is that the Cards shot nearly twice as many. UofL chucked up thirty four shots from behind the arc over the course of the game, making a mere 21% of them: if that doesn’t constitute a leaderless offense, I don’t know what does.
This is why the Cards could never claw back. When the Volunteers made three straight threes early in the second half, the game passed a point of competitiveness that it never saw again: Louisville simply never threatened, and never threatened to threaten.
Shooting…themselves in the foot
Shooting is a problem the Cards have had already this year, and one that this writer predicted, by the way. I told you that the Memphis game was as impressive as it was concerning: it’s great when the team is untouchable from three, and they were, against the Tigers.
The Tennessee game was a call back to the loss at Arkansas. The difference between the two, however, was that, against the Razorbacks, Louisville managed to cut the lead to five in the closing minutes. Mikel Brown, Jr. used his ability to get down hill and draw fouls, creating offense when the team couldn’t muster any.
This is what the team lacked on Tuesday night: they simply didn’t have any viable second option when the threes weren’t falling. Their offense was as one-dimensional as it was lost, which is to be expected when your quarterback is on the bench.
The “how-to” on Lou
The formula for beating the Cards is pretty clear cut, now: don’t allow them to shoot the three or get in transition, then play physically, and beat them up on the boards. In both games that this has happened, the results have not only been unfortunate, they’ve been ugly.
These games have given Pat Kelsey serious questions he has to answer before the days get long again. His team has now suffered two December road losses to SEC teams with multiple early season defeats. Tennessee had dropped three straight before their pummeling of the Cards, and Arkansas was 6-2 when they handed Louisville its first loss of 2025.
Also read: How to lose a game in 10-minutes (Arkansas recap)
They wrote the thesis on beating Louisville. There is an antithesis, though: Kelsey has to get his team to either beat these big, physical teams by imposing Cardinal will, or, should that fail, take a page from the playbooks of Michigan State, Duke, Illinois, Syracuse, or Kansas.
Watch State of Louisville Live! recap all the action against Tenneseee
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A revelation, not revelations
The sky is not falling in Louisville, though, and anybody who says anything of the sort is a fool.
The Cards may have lost two games in convincing fashion, but a plethora of things had to go wrong to make it so. The likelihood of the entire team shooting poorly, the point guard being injured, and the front court being unable to compensate is not likely to tri-multaneously show up in a single game again. In fact, had Louisville done a serviceable job of shooting the ball, the game(s) could have, and likely would have, gone much differently. But, like I said after the Arkansas loss and the Memphis win, any team that lives by the three will be ultimately destined to die by it.
Isaac McKneely will come out of this shooting slump, and will do so with a vengeance. Mikel Brown, Jr. will see the court again, and likely much sooner than later. Louisville will continue to get increased production from its very deep bench, which has seen some phenomenal output from Adrian Wooley recently, especially in the Tennessee loss. Yes, the Louisville Cardinals have some obvious deficiencies that have been exposed in early season matchups against tough, SEC teams. The silver lining, though, is that the Cards have two thirds of a season left to plug the holes on their ship, and a ton of diverse talent to do it with.
Captain Kelsey is a pirate I trust, also.
Now what for Louisville basketball?
On paper, and television, the Volunteers made fools of Louisville. Nobody, as such, will remember that Kobe Rodgers drew three straight charges at the end of the first half (only two of them were called, but he got steam rolled by a 6’8, 270 pound Jaylen Carey, then Carey shot free throws…that fact will be put in print here, if nowhere else). Or that the Cards actually won the rebounding war in the first half. I say that to say this: basketball is a game of runs. If you’re a shooting team that’s getting no production from three, you have to turn drawn charges into baskets. You have to get to the line when shots won’t fall, then you have to make your free throws. UofL did one without the other against Tennessee.
Winning on the road is hard, wining without your point guard is really hard, and winning without making shots is almost impossible. Though all three of these horsemen showed up on Tuesday night, they weren’t the only things that did. Even when things are dark, there are some real bright spots on this team. Help is on the way, the shots will fall again, and our quarterback will be back. Hopefully, the basketball team responds to blowout like the football team did when they got their leader back.
