Louisville women’s basketball sweeps four games in seven days

Louisville women’s basketball goes undefeated playing four games in a week. The biggest takeaways from the Cards’ improving play on the floor.

The Louisville women’s basketball team is in the meat of their ACC schedule. After some very tough conference games, and a difficult loss to NC State, the Cards entered a grueling part of the schedule. After the Miami game was postponed due to Covid protocols, it was rescheduled for February 1st. That would usually be fine other than the fact that rescheduled game would put the Cards at four games in seven days. Three of those games came on the road. With how grueling that slate sounds, especially in the ACC, the Cards came away unscathed.

The Cards began that weeklong run at home against a ranked Duke team, and welcome back Elizabeth Balogun. Louisville then went on a three-game road trip in five days. The Cards would begin the road trip in South Beach to take on Miami on Tuesday. Louisville would then travel up the coast to South Carolina to take on Clemson on Thursday. The Cards would finish the road trip on Sunday as they went to New York and took on Syracuse. Here are my three keys as to why the Louisville women’s basketball team went undefeated in this four-game stretch.

Hailey Van Lith is becoming the star we all expected her to be

With a very rough start to her sophomore season and the term sophomore slump thrown around HVL has been looking to right the ship. Kianna Smith and Emily Engstler took a lot of pressure off of Van Lith so she could work through her shooting woes. As Louisville entered conference play you could see something beginning to click with HVL, and the shooting percentage improving. That all came full circle in this four-game stretch.

Beginning with the Duke game on January 30th, Van Lith became unconscious on the offensive end of the floor. Van Lith averaged 17.5 points per game in the four-game stretch. The sophomore shot 26/48 from the floor, and 12/21 from the three-point line. This is the HVL all of CardNation was hoping to see the entire season. This Louisville team, with this Hailey Van Lith, is dangerous.

The Cards meshed on both ends of the floor

Everyone in the media has raved about the Louisville women’s basketball team’s defense this season, but not a lot has been said about the offense. Rightfully so though because as good as the defense has been, lulls in the offense have kept them from closing games earlier than they should have. That was not the case in these four games. The Cards played very well on both ends of the floor last week and made a case as a strong contender for the title this season.

Offensively the Cards have struggled at times this season. There have been games where the Cards started slow and took till the second quarter or even the second half to get going. There have been games where they failed to close, like NC State and Arizona. Louisville didn’t let that get to them, and they came out swinging in these four games. Louisville averaged just under 85 points per game. The Cards shot just under 52% from the floor, and 38% from three-point range.

The Cards’ defense also showed up like they have all season. Louisville only gave up 66.5 points per game in this stretch. Louisville only allowed the four teams to shoot 41% from the floor, and 39% from three-point range. I believe the three-point percentage is the big story here. The Cards have struggled in three-point defense at times this season, so seeing that percentage low is refreshing.

The Louisville depth is beginning to be more of a factor

The talk all season is how would Louisville do without having the star they have had since Jeff Walz became the coach dating back to the Angel McCoughtry era. All the mainstream media has said Louisville just has a bunch of role players without the star power to make them great. They may not have Angel, Shoni, Myisha, Asia, or Dana, but they got 11 players that could play on almost any team in the nation. Louisville’s depth really helped pull them through these four games when you have 9 players playing double-digit minutes.

When you have 3-6 players scoring in double figures every game helps, especially when 3 of the players are bench players. Freshman Payton Verhulst has really gotten comfortable in the offense and came into her own during ACC play. When I had Coach Purcell on the Off The Walz Podcast he said when ACC play started, she was now Sophomore P not Freshman P anymore. Verhulst has really began playing like a sophomore and not a freshman also.

Liz Dixon and Olivia Cochran have become a great one-two punch on the block for the Cards. When you have Cochran go out of the game for a rest and you can bring Dixon in to spell her, and the team doesn’t miss a beat is what you want from your team. Then you have your point guards. Chelsie Hall and Mykasa Robinson are just so interchangeable that there is no misstep at that position either. They are both great on defense, and wonderful at facilitating the offense.

Now to get where the money is made, and that is Hailey Van Lith, Emily Engstler, and Kianna Smith. That is the star power of this year’s team and the alphas on the team. All three are great rebounders, terrific scorers, and come up big when it counts. All three have shot well from three-point range and rebounded very well for their sizes. When they need a rest, you get to bring in senior Ahlana Smith. Ahlana has been a great spark off the bench in many games this season. She is long and great on defense and has shot the ball well in most games this season.

Maybe not one star player like the mainstream wants, but a team full of very good players that play very well together. This season’s Louisville women’s basketball team has embodied the term team game. When one player is down another player steps up to pull them through. Yeah, this team is full of role players, and their role is to win for each other and with each other.

You can catch the Cards in action again Thursday, February 10th at home versus Virginia. The game will be at 7 PM on ACCNX and 790 WKRD.