Louisville basketball had the chance to pull off the biggest upset of the season, but the pressure from Duke was too much in the end.
It was Louisville basketball’s night, until it wasn’t.
With less than nine minutes to go in the second half, the Cards held a 23 point lead against the #2 ranked team in the nation, and a squad many might say is actually the best all-around team in the country, as well as a 99.9% chance to pull out the victory according to ESPN.com.
And then, it all fell apart.
Possession by possession, Louisville began to do what we saw Saturday against the Florida State Seminoles: crumble under the pressure of a full-court press. The Cards had dominated the best team in the nation for nearly 30 minutes and all of a sudden they looked up and realized they were beating Duke, and Duke wasn’t happy about it.
It’s like back in the mid 2000’s when Tiger Woods was at the peak of his game. On Sunday’s a Sergio Garcia, Zach Johnson, or some other golfer who came seemingly out of nowhere had a 3 stroke lead heading into the back nine, it all looked good. Until they realized they were beating Tiger Woods. At that point, the man in the lead had already lost. That’s exactly what happened to Louisville last night.
There’s no easy way to describe what possibly the best crowd in the last five years of the KFC Yum! Center witnessed last night. It was like Virginia all over again, but 5,000 x worse. Louisville wasn’t just winning against Duke – no, they were absolutely destroying them.
The game plan that Chris Mack had put together was working to perfection. The 1-3-1 defense was forcing Duke into bad shots from outside, limiting the driving ability of guys like Zion Williamson and RJ Barrett, and was forcing the likes of Tre Jones, Cam Reddish, and Marques Bolden to beat them – something that they just weren’t capable of doing.
As Duke made a big play, whether it be a dunk off an offensive rebound or a three from deep – Louisville wasn’t phased. They continued to make the right play again and again and the impossible seemed to be becoming the possible. The game plan was literally played out to near perfection in the first half and into the second half, enough to even prompt Coach K to compliment Coach Mack and the Cards in his press conference post-game, saying:
"“They were so damn prepared for us, so well prepared. My level of respect was already high, but it’s even higher after this game.”"
Coach K wasn’t the only one who recognized the effort and performance of the Cards. Coach Mack spoke to the media after his team’s loss, saying:
"“I’m really proud of my team, they competed their tails off. We played as hard as we’ve played all year, we dominated the best in the country for 30 something minutes. We have to figure out how to close games.”"
When Duke went into a zone in the second half and began to press full court with Tre Jones and reserve guard Jordan Goldwire – things changed. Louisville began to turn the ball over again and again. The three guards in the game looked like they didn’t want the ball out of the press, as they struggled to even get it to half court at times, while looking like they were afraid of the moment that was unfolding in front of them.
Louisville blew a 23 point lead, but still had a chance to win the game up until the final moments of the game when Ryan McMahon took what looked to be a charge, but was reviewed and changed to a blocking foul that sent Cam Reddish to the free throw line to seal the game. Louisville got the ball back with just a few seconds, and it wasn’t enough as the Blue Devils picked up their 22nd win on the season.
This is no doubt the worst loss I have experienced as a fan of Louisville basketball, regardless of what other games anyone might want to bring up. Louisville had a friggin’ 99.9% chance to win the ball game with less than 10 minutes in the second half. As I said before, Chris Mack had a perfect game plan to slow down RJ Barrett & Zion Williamson, while offensively Jordan Nwora, Dwayne Sutton, and Steven Enoch had unbelievable games.
To throw away that game, literally, in the closing moments of the game was gut wrenching and beyond hard to swallow.
"They're humans, they're humans... they saw the lead evaporating. They were trying to make the best plays they could... my job moving forward is to pick my guys up." - @CoachChrisMack
— Howie Lindsey (@howielindsey) February 13, 2019
"“We’ve got to figure out how to finish games and close games when teams are in panic mode and drawing up defenses in the sand. They turned us over 1,000 times in the final four or five minutes, I am stunned. But I love my group. I feel for them. As I said I felt we outplayed the best team in the country for a long time. Our team will grow from this, as hard as it is to accept, we’re gonna grow from it and there are gonna be better times.”"
While there is no moral victory here, there are still plenty of things to take away. Jordan Nwora absolutely outplayed Zion Williamson for the majority of the first half and into the second half, finishing the game with 23 points and 9 rebounds, on 9/16 shooting and 5/8 from deep. Steven Enoch was dominant off the bench scoring 14 points, including 2 threes that helped the Cards keep their lead extended. The Darius Perry we all know and love was back, scoring 6 points off the bench, including a miraculous tip in at the first half buzzer. CC put together a season-best 12 assists, 10 of which came in the first half. The list goes on and on.
With the final outcome in mind I tried to find the three biggest takeaways from the game that will have a lasting impact moving forward for Louisville.
Let’s take a look.