Louisville basketball must quickly move on from blowout loss against Wisconsin.
The matchup with Wisconsin was always going to be a tough one. But coming off of a 19-day hiatus and playing without the services of their top player, Carlik Jones, further magnified the difficulty for Louisville basketball.
There was hope that adding back Samuell Williamson, who missed the previous two games with a dislocated toe, and pairing him with David Johnson would spark the Cards. Unfortunately, however, that couldn’t have been further from the truth.
In the 85-48 loss to #12 Wisconsin, Louisville basketball learned a hard lesson as Quinn Slazinski told the media on Monday “”We have to be the tougher team.” Mental toughness is a non-negotiable for Chris Mack, even more so in a season of college basketball unlike ever before.
Upset wasn’t in the Cards for Louisville basketball
It started ugly and ended uglier, as a senior laden Wisconsin team smelled blood in the water and took advantage.
We were thoroughly outplayed, outmanned, out-toughed, out-coached,” Mack said in his post-game availability. “Wisconsin’s got a veteran crew, and they look like it. They played like a million bucks, didn’t miss a shot from the field, and we never really offered resistance the entire way. It is what it is, we got to move on. We got a game against Pittsburgh, but we got to learn some lessons from this one.”
Anything and everything that could go wrong did for Louisville basketball on Saturday. It started with the aforementioned Jones being ruled out due to UofL return to play guidelines, leaving the Cards extremely shorthanded. When that’s the case, you can’t give up easy baskets because of bad defense; it’s a death sentence.
That’s what Louisville did. Within minutes, Wisconsin senior guard D’Mitrik Trice had three threes, mostly resulting from defensive breakdowns. By the 8 minute mark of the first half, Louisville had scored just eight points and trailed by 20 points. You may think it couldn’t much worse but at each and every turn it did.
At halftime the Cards had just 18 points, while giving up 44 to Wisconsin.
Also read: Takeaways from Louisville women’s basketball season thus far
The second half got worse. Louisville’s defense couldn’t stop anyone, giving up another 41 points, while the offense couldn’t do much better. Though they scored 30 second-half points, most came in garbage time while the game was completely out of reach. It was, by all means, a blood bath coming at Louisville’s expense, as the team took their worst lost since 1956.
Even without Jones in the roster, one would’ve hoped that sophomores and highly-touted recruits Sam Williamson and David Johnson could’ve done more. Neither looked comfortable offensively (or defensively for that matter), whether it was with or without ball. With every opportunity to show their star power, neither was ready for the challenge. Combined they shot 7/21 from the field (33%) and turned the ball over 10 times, while allowing numerous defensive breakdowns that led to points from Trice, Brad Davison, and Aleem Ford.
There wasn’t anyone else on the roster who performed much better either although guys like Quinn Slazinski and Gabe Wiznitzer had brief flashes of brilliance.
Dre Davis looked like a freshman for the first time this season, going 0-5 shooting and posting 4 turnovers.
JaeLyn Withers wasn’t quite ready conditioning wise, playing just 18 minutes, limiting his impact.
Aidan Igiehon, a big built for this type of matchup, provided nothing of substance in seven minutes.
I could go on and on. Simply put, the players just weren’t ready for the challenge and it led to a 37 point blowout at a crucial point in the season.
Chris Mack did what he could. He made adjustments defensively to go to a zone to try and slow down the shooting of Wisconsin. He adjusted his offense, attempting to get open looks for shooters. But none of it worked. Chalk it up to rust, missing your best player, or even inexperience in a big moment. Whatever it was, it was ugly. And now there’s only one sleep before their first ACC game.
Louisville basketball has a bounceback opportunity
Saturday was ugly; we can all easily agree upon that. But what happens from here is what will define the season – not that loss. If Louisville watches the film, makes the necessary improvements, and bounces back strong, the Wisconsin game will be an afterthought. However, if they show up to play against 5-1 Pittsburgh with a “woe is me” mentality and allow the negatives to overpower the positives, things could quickly go the wrong way.
Following the game, Mack told local media “I don’t think you can burn the tape. Obviously, we’ve got to have – two things we need to worry about, and that is: why things happen the way they did in this game, but at the same time with a quick turnaround against Pittsburgh, we’ve got to be able to do two things at once, so to speak. At least figure out some glaring, and there were a lot of them, areas that we need to improve, no matter who we play. And then we got to get ready for Pittsburgh on the road on Tuesday.”
I’d like to think that each player who touched the floor on Saturday knew they could play better and provide more. Whether it be Williamson, who played all 40 minutes, or Igiehon, who played just seven. Regardless of role or status on the team, everyone has the potential to improve following the blowout loss. If that’s the mentality the team takes, a win over a solid ACC team could get things back on track.
It won’t be easy to prepare for their first ACC test as quickly as they’ll have to, but it will be a huge opportunity for Mack’s young team to make a point. How do they go about doing that?
Williamson told the media in his post-game availability, “We got to work on everything, we got to be a lot better in a lot of aspects of the game.” In order to do that it starts with the fundamentals. The offense struggled in every fashion imaginable as I’ve pointed out, shooting at one of their lowest clips of the season while being negligent with the ball. It made things beyond easy for Wisconsin as they realized if they stayed connected to their man, no one was going to score.
Defensively, they allowed open three after open three to a team that has knocked them down at a near 40 percent mark all season. A team that thrives when the ball is inside, was allowed to thrive as Micah Potter, Nate Reuvers, and others essentially got whatever they wanted.
Cards can’t put all their eggs in one basket
Louisville will have one major difference on Tuesday when they take the floor against Pittsburgh, and that will be the addition of Jones back into the lineup. Jones’ absence was fairly obvious when you watched the ball movement (or lack thereof) and drives to the basket against Wisconsin. No one was able to consistently able to beat their man off the dribble and if they did, they almost rarely made anything of it.
Getting him back will help with opening the floor up, but it won’t mean anything if others aren’t ready.
Shooting, defensive communication, offensive movement, and ball security are just a few of the areas where improvement is needed and fast. Shooting 36 percent from the field and turning the ball over 18 times won’t be cured by Jones’ presence, that’s for sure. That’s where we’ll see the mental fortitude and attention to detail and if young players are truly catching on.
Jones will be a major addition but if Louisville’s players stand around and watch, much like they did Saturday, it will be another long trip home. A win against Pittsburgh will have to come by way of a complete team effort.
I don’t know about you but I don’t like the sound of going up against Kentucky after two straight losses. That makes Tuesday as much as a must win as there has been yet this season.
