Louisville basketball roundtable: Midseason review part I
By Jacob Lane
What a season so far for Louisville basketball, one I’m not sure many people saw coming. Our team dives into the first 20 games to recap the madness.
We’re 20 games into the inaugural season of the Chris Mack era for Louisville basketball, and man what a ride it’s been thus far. When Mack took over as the new coach at Louisville, fans and experts alike thought it was the best possible hire for the Cardinals program, one in need of a huge culture change after several years of scandals and problems. With the FBI Investigation still looming large over the program many believed it would take years, but eventually the Louisville program that’s risen to one of the most successful in the country, would be back. But again, it would take years.
In year one Chris Mack would take over a team that missed the tournament in 2017-18 even after winning 20 games, with a bit of talent, but a lot more limitations. With only seven scholarship players on the roster, Mack was going to have to get some serious talent and fast if his team was going to make the tournament. That’s exactly what he did, when he brought in Samford graduate transfer and Kentucky native, Christen Cunningham, Richmond transfer Khwan Fore, and the grandpa of college basketball and former Cardinal, Akoy Agau.
With a roster full of guys like Jordan Nwora, Dwayne Sutton, VJ King, Steven Enoch, and Malik Williams that had limitless potential but a lot of question marks, it was going to take an incredible coaching job to get the team to gel fast and be prepared for the toughest schedule in the country. And that’s exactly what’s happened so far.
On January 30, 2019, the Cards sit at 15-5 overall and 6-1 in the ACC (good enough to be in first place) with wins over #9 Michigan State, Seton Hall (on the road), and #12 North Carolina, a game they won by 20+ at Chapel Hill, handing Roy Williams his first home loss since becoming the UNC head coach. There have been other close calls, including a competitive game against #3 ranked Tennessee, the game against Marquette where Louisville technically won but still lost, and the 1 point loss to Indiana (which now appears to be a bad loss).
The Cards have been a revelation in the ACC and now seriously have a chance at competing for a top four seed come conference play. I could go on and on about all the things Mack has achieved in year one that no one thought was possible, most notably the big culture change, but for now the team at Big Red Louie takes a look back at the first three months of the season.