Louisville Basketball’s the good, the bad, the ugly vs. Southern U

Following a sloppy tip-off against Nicholls there were a lot of questions still out there about this Louisville Basketball team. Let’s jump in and see what was learned by the thumbing the Cards put on Southern U.

This was my first time getting to the KFC Yum! Center in the new look Louisville basketball era and I was blown away by the upgraded intro. The new hype video, laser light show, and fire spitting from the goal post during introductions gave me all of the feels and really set the tone for the beat down the Cards would be laying on Jaguars. Speaking of setting a tone, on Louisville’s very first possession they fed Steven “The Enochness Monster” Enoch in the post who immediately drew a foul which felt like it continued on every possession, at both ends of the floor for the entire game.

In these early season games against Cream Puff University you normally do not really learn a lot about your team. The was even harder in the Southern game because the officiating crew turned this into a glorified free throw shooting contest very early on. In Between foul calls there were flashes of play that left me feeling as this team has moved past the not so ideal outing against Nicholls and ready for the step up in competition that is coming up very quickly now.

The Good: The new Cardinal defense

Gone is the hybrid matchup – zone that often left underclassmen lost on defense. Chris Mack has instilled his version of the pack line that against Southern caused 23 turnovers leading to 30 of the Cardinals 104 points. I mentioned in this article after Nicholls game that the Cardinals were accustomed to defense creating offense which may have led to the stagnant offense we saw against Nicholls. This was much improved against Southern, the Cards did a great job of staying in front of their man, talking, switching assignments, and boxing out which won UL the battle on the boards 37-22.

A few other bright spots were again the play of the Cards bigs Steven Enoch with 13 points in 13 minutes including another perfect night from the free throw line. The hustle plays of Dwayne Sutton who while he did not fill up the stat line with 2 points, 5 boards, and 3 assists, Sutton just does everything that does not show up in the stat line. Malik Williams did stuff the box score with 17 and 5 and he was also on the floor for every loose ball and had my favorite reaction on the bench when Darius Perry did his best Michael Jordan impression on a baseline drive.

Jordan Nwora again did not start but still finished with a game high 20 points and brought The Yum! to its feet when he completely bodied a man with a vicious dunk in the first half.

One last bright spot was the 12 quality minutes the veteran by the very sense of the word Akoy Agau provided. Agau was needed with Enoch and Williams both in foul trouble and finished with 7 points and 7 boards.

The Bad: Where is VJ?

First off I am a fan. I am not a media member, just a fan that is part of a UL blog (all be it a fast up and coming and overall awesome blog). I hate even the thought of ragging on unpaid college student athletes, BUT all throughout the offseason we were told to be ready for the new VJ King.

While VJ’s appearance is noticeably different, as he is a very ripped grown @ss man, against Southern U. King finished with just 8 points, 3 boards, 2 assists, and 4 turnovers. Seven of King’s 8 points game in a flash in the beginning of the second half and I settled in to watch VJ take over and have a big night and unfortunately that just did not happen.

I have been on the VJ King train since his freshman year and I will never jump off. I also have told anyone that would listen that this first Coach Mack team will go as far as King and Jordan Nwora take them and against teams like Nicholls and Southern I really expected much larger point totals from VJ. As the competition quickly picks up starting this Friday with a very fundamental Vermont team coming to town I am still holding out hope my man VJ stops getting hidden on the court and really breaks out in a big way and not just to silence any haters but just for himself because I am a big VJ King fan.

The Ugly: All of The Fouls

If memory serves me correctly both teams were in the double bonus about half way through the first half. All this does is slow the game down and turn it into nothing more than a free throw shooting contest. Anytime I felt like Louisville was really getting into a flow at either end of the court the referees swiftly put an end to it with some of the worst foul calls I have ever witnessed. Darius Perry picked up 2 personal fouls in the first half after making physical contact with zero people on the court. I was sitting basically on the roof of The Yum up in section 313 (shout out to all the 300 section people to showing up and showing out) and could see Perry made no physical contact with anyone when he was called for his second foul.

Card Nation was looking to answer some questions about this team following the Southern game and I think we got some of those. We saw Nwora be the offensive spark we all knew he would be, electrifying the Yum crowd with his ability to get to the rim and dunk on dudes. We also saw The Enochness Monster not only continue to dominate but also we saw him get into foul trouble and what that would look like. Malik came in and played at an extremely high level and when he too got into foul trouble we saw Akoy can come in and give serviceable minutes.

I also have to shout out my dude Darius Perry. Not only did he have the before mentioned MJ like up and under bring the Yum to its feet layup he also caught fire from beyond the three point line in the second half that helped him finish with 13 points.

There are a lot of good things to build on as Louisville gets ready for a Vermont team that hung with Kansas nearly the entire game last week so lets make sure Yum is filled and rocking Friday night for Vermont. It would be a great early quality win against what more than likely will end up a tournament team before we go on a four game stretch of nothing but ranked teams. Go Cards!