Louisville basketball: 3 takeaways from UK win

Louisville basketball beats Kentucky in a nail-biter. Three takeaways from the win.

Louisville basketball beats Kentucky. Doesn’t get much better than this.

Here are three quick takeaways from a wild rivalry game win.

Carlik Jones and David Johnson are an elite backcourt

It is hard to envision what this Louisville basketball team looks like without Carlik Jones and David Johnson.

Johnson was named MVP of the game by the Bluegrass Sports Commission. The Louisville native finished with 17 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 boards. In a first half where the Cardinals looked dysfunctional on offense, Johnson knocked down three big threes. In the second half, Johnson looked to attack and was clearly the best guard on the floor at finishing in the paint.

Jones was the veteran leader that UofL needed to finish the game. In a situation where the Cards were looking for someone to be a primary ball handler and initiate the offense late in the game, Jones possessed the clutch gene that Louisville needed to put Kentucky away. While Johnson is clearly the most talented player on this Louisville team, he was turnover prone late in the game. Jones didn’t flinch. He finished with 20 points, five rebounds, and 2 assists.

Louisville’s backcourt is clearly the strength of this team and is the primary reason the Cards pulled out the win.

Louisville held Kentucky’s bigs in check

Kentucky head coach John Calipari thrives when he has dominant big men. If you look at Kentucky’s most successful teams, the common denominator is having a dominant big man.

Louisville held the Kentucky bigs largely in check. The four Kentucky big men that saw action went 8-22 from the field. Most importantly, Kentucky’s top starters down low went 2-10 from the field. Kentucky center Olivier Sarr finished with 1 point and 1 rebound.

The Cards’ big guys mostly struggled offensively. However, entering the game as a Louisville fan, you felt that UK had the advantage down low. Louisville’s big men, especially Jae’Lyn Withers and Quinn Slazinski, held their own down low, which is massive.

The Chris Mack era of the rivalry will be different

This was the year for Louisville basketball to capitalize. With Kentucky off to a poor start, Louisville clearly had the better team entering the game.

With that said, Louisville is extremely inexperienced and although this was a chance for them to seize the moment, it was tough to identify what player would enable the Cardinals to do so.

Louisville basketball played an extremely sloppy game. The Cards had issues with spacing, ball movement, rebounding, and handling Kentucky’s press. When all was said and done though, the Cards clearly came in with a solid game plan and executed it well.

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Kentucky big man Olivier Sarr posed the biggest threat for Louisville. The Cards held him to 1 point and 1 rebound in 22 minutes. Louisville was conservative on defense but, for the most part, did a great job of letting Kentucky not dictate the pace. Kentucky star Terrence Clarke is banged up. Still, Louisville made it a point to take the ball out of his hands. Kentucky’s three stars in Clarke, Sarr, and BJ Boston finished the game with 12 points on 3-19 shooting, 8 rebounds, and 1 assist.

Most importantly, Mack was open and honest about his feelings toward the game. When Calipari sent shots across the bow in the offseason, Mack fired back via a sarcasm-laced Twitter post. It was clear that Calipari was doing whatever he could to gain an advantage, including refusing to play Louisville at a neutral site, rearranging the game date and time, and complaining about officiating before the game even began.

In year one, Mack led an inexperienced hodge podge team to a narrow loss. In year two, Louisville outplayed the Cats but 50 percent shooting from the free throw line led to a shocking overtime loss. Now, in year three, Mack appears to be gaining traction. He has a history of embracing rivalry games. Now, Mack is building a reputation for being able to win against Louisville’s most-hated foe.