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Louisville Basketball: 5 Keys to Beating Lipscomb

By Andy Harrell

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 23: Steven Enoch #23 of the Louisville Cardinals and Dwayne Sutton #24 react during the first half of the game against Marquette Golden Eagles at the NIT Season Tip-Off Tournament at Barclays Center on November 23, 2018 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 23: Steven Enoch #23 of the Louisville Cardinals and Dwayne Sutton #24 react during the first half of the game against Marquette Golden Eagles at the NIT Season Tip-Off Tournament at Barclays Center on November 23, 2018 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images) /
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Louisville basketball (6-3) will host the Atlantic Sun Conference’s Lipscomb (7-2) Wednesday night to kick off a 5 game home stand for the Cards.

Louisville basketball, eager to bounce back after a tough 1 point road loss to Indiana Saturday, will have a premier mid-major team standing in its way. The Lipscomb Bisons are ranked 8th in the Collegeinsider.com Mid-Major Top 25

Nashville’s Lipscomb Bisons will come into the Yum! Wednesday after a 107 point performance at home against Navy. While the Bison’s two losses on the season have come as part of an unusual, in season, home-and-home with cross town rival Belmont, the veteran group already has multiple notable road wins.

This 2018-2019 Lipscomb team will be no pushover. Coach Casey Alexander has his team ranked #72 by KenPom and #45 in the NCAA’s new NET Rankings system. A NET Ranking that high puts Lipscomb in the top 13% of all D-1 teams and, on paper, in front of notable names like Florida, Notre Dame and UCONN.

Appearing in the NCAA tournament last year, the Bisons won the Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament before losing there first round game to UNC.

Despite the tournament loss the Bisons haven’t wavered this year against bigger competition. That same Lipscomb team returns their top 6 scorers, who are accompanied this year by their leading rebounder, an outstanding freshman from Atlanta, Ahsan Asadullah. The group’s headlining win to date has been a 9 point victory on the road at #18 TCU of the Big 12 Conference.

The Bisons are not particularly athletic or big but are very fundamentally sound. They make clean passes on offense while looking for the best available shot and almost always get the ball to the post where their exceptionally gifted passing center, Rob Mayberry, either finds the open man or contributes to his, team leading, 16.9 points per game.

As mentioned, while the roster as a whole isn’t superbly athletic(think D-1 version of Bellarmine), the team’s best player, Garrison Matthews, is an elite scorer and shot creator. He will pull of from anywhere at anytime and has a Jimmer Fredette-esque, sneaky athleticism.

The Bisons will have to try and contain a very good Louisville team, who rank #19 in the NET rankings, in every facet of the game.

The Cards have shown they can score from the outside, score in transition and get to the rim in the halfcourt. In a press conference Tuesday Coach Chris Mack said he wants more focus on “balance” in the offense. He felt Louisville’s guards were not pushing as much as they could to get the ball inside.

Posted by Louisville Basketball on Tuesday, December 11, 2018

With that aimed focus on the inside game, Lipscomb will essentially have nowhere to stake their defense and the Cards should have plenty of scoring options both inside and out. Louisville’s athleticism and length on offense will certainly be bothersome for the opponent at every position.

Without further ado, BRL’s 5 Keys to the game:

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