Louisville Basketball: The good, the bad, the ugly: NIT Season Tip Off

The early season trip to New York could have gone better for Louisville basketball. Let’s revisit  the late Thanksgiving week tournament here with the good, the bad, and the ugly.

I went into the match up with number five ranked Tennessee thinking this would be the game where we would get some questions answered about what to expect from this Louisville basketball team. How good is this team? How many of these early quality games does Louisville need to win? Is returning to March Madness a realistic expectation for Coach Mack’s first Cardinals team? Maybe we did not get answers to all of those questions against Tennessee but my takeaway is if UT really is anywhere near as good as their number five ranking then Louisville can play with anyone in the country.

So while UofL fell to Tennessee in the opener, that meant we got to renew the rivalry with Marquette after Kansas outlasted the Golden Eagles. All honesty here I missed the first half while in line at Hobby Lobby buying Holiday decor but the fireworks all came in the second half anyway. I came home to a 5 point deficit at the half, The Cardinals came out and at one time sprinted to an 8 point lead.

The Good: We know we can play with anyone

I did not think I would feel as positive as I do about this team if we went to New York and left 0 for 2, but I feel UL had a strong showing. Hot three pointing shooting kept the Cards in the game in the first half. The second half was vintage cardiac cards to Card Nation. You could see the team was struggling to stay in the game when Coach Mack was hit with a technical foul with around six minutes left in the game. The game felt a lot closer than the 92-81 final score.

Another good from the two games was the play of AARP spokesman Akoy Agau. The traveled veteran provided quality minutes in both games, including 11 points and 5 boards in 16 minutes against UT and 6 points in 9 minutes against Marquette. This is not stat stuffing or team leading numbers but it is quality minutes being provided with Steven Enoch and/or Malik Williams get into foul trouble.

One last “good” to touch on is the play of grad transfer and starting floor general Christen Cunningham. I was not sure what to expect from C.C. this season, but for a program so rich in point guard tradition I was starting to wonder when Cunningham would break out and it happened in NYC.

Please do not get me wrong, Cunningham has does nothing wrong or below expectation, he had just seemed to have taken a more cerebral role for the Cards this season. However, against Marquette, C.C. broke out, leading Louisville with 16 points in 35 minutes, and proving he can play with the big boys.

The Bad: Going 0-2

Louisville has a beyond loaded schedule this season so there will be plenty of time to pick up quadrant one victories but man it sure would have been nice to capture one this early on in the year. When I am asked what I expect from this Louisville Basketball team I always respond with “they will win some games they shouldn’t, and they will lose some games they shouldn’t.” Somehow these two games feel as though they fall into both of those categories. While an underdog in both games, they both seemed in reach of winning late into second half against Tennessee and well, we should have had more points than the Golden Eagles in game 2 but we will touch on that below.

The Ugly: Refs

THE MARQUETTE GAME SHOULD NEVER HAVE GONE TO OVERTIME!… Okay, rant over. It seems Louisville basketball always finds some mind-boggling way to lose a game, and to only be credited two points on a made Jordan Nwora three point shot was the newest of oddity losses for the Cardinals.

Look, I am aware there were plenty of other calls from the time of Nwora’s two point three pointer, the style of play could have changed, and who knows what else could have happened in that amount of time but at the end of regulation the score should have been Louisville 69 (nice) Marquette 68.

My twitter timeline following the Marquette game was also pretty ugly. If you place blame on one player for the outcome of a 40 minute team sports game, then I think it says more about you than that player. If you want to @ mention a professional player on twitter then knock yourself out; They are grossly overpaid, and though criticism from fans is more than likely not warranted it is certainly more understandable. Now if you are @ mentioning any college player, much less one that is a student athlete for the team YOU cheer for, then you need to delete your account. I saw plenty of hate tweeting and complaining about the careers of some guys that play for OUR team and I have the hardest time trying to figure out the folks that do that.

In closing, going to New York and leaving without a win was not what any of us wanted, but we learned UL can play with the country’s best teams.

There is still plenty of time for UL to pick up quality wins, as a matter of fact the next chance is Tuesday 11/27 when nationally ranked number 11 Michigan State rolls into the Yum Center. Make sure the place is packed and rocking from the student section to the upper 300’s and lets cheer our guys on to their first upset win of the season. Go Cards!