On verge of season defining win, Louisville basketball suffers epic collapse

Louisville can beat anybody in the country, and that’s not hyperbole

If you watched that game last night and I didn’t tell you how it ended I believe you’d be convinced much like I am that Louisville can beat anybody in the country. Anybody.

Duke is by far, in my opinion, the most overall talented team in the country and Louisville handled them for 30+ minutes. As Chris Mack eluded to in his press conference, Louisville came out and gave their best effort of the season after a tough loss to Florida State just four days earlier.

The little things in the scouting report were done on the floor to perfection, good shots were taken, the ball moved crisply, and defensively the zone was executed at a very high level. It just so happened that the team realized in the second half that they were playing a team with three likely top 5 picks in the NBA draft and they crumbled.

If Louisville can play Duke the way they did, play Tennessee the way the did, destroy North Carolina and Michigan State – two potential final four teams, and take down the likes of Virginia Tech (on one day’s rest), Seton Hall, Lipscomb and North Carolina State, I am convinced that on any given night Louisville is good enough to beat anyone.

This loss stings but like Mack said “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.”

Chris Mack must improve as a coach in closing games out

In his first season coaching a team filled with players he didn’t recruit and who don’t necessarily “fit” his system, it’s easy to pass the blame away from Chris Mack. Honestly, there’s really not been a whole lot happen this year where you even want to blame anybody, unless it’s the referees.

But last night was the first night where I felt it was okay to put some blame on Chris Mack, as did Chris Mack. When Louisville went head-to-head with Pittsburgh a few weeks back, ultimately pulling off a victory, I thought for the first time there were some coaching flaws in Mack that were exposed and a lot of game plan issues that the Panthers exploited and took advantage of. While it was NC State the game before who attempted to press Louisville, to no avail, it was Jeff Capel who made it a focus almost the entire game to try and muck up Louisville’s offensive flow with a press and expose their carelessness with the ball.

Since then, just about every team Louisville has faced has pulled out some sort of zone press and it’s continued to cause issues. Since the Wake Forest game, Louisville has turned the ball over 11,15,23,and 17 times respectively, winning one out of four games. Against Virginia Tech, FSU and Duke, Louisville blew leads of 10+ points and went down to the wire, ultimately dropping two in horrific fashion.

It hasn’t just been in ACC games this season that Chris Mack has struggled with closing games. Early in the season Louisville stayed competitive but late mistakes led to losses against Tennessee, Marquette, and Indiana.

I believe with everything in me that Mack deserves to be the National Coach of the Year and ACC Coach of the Year for what he has done with a team that didn’t make the tournament last season and was picked to finish 11th. However, there are some coaching issues that need to be sorted out and improved upon, just like there are issues on the floor that the players have to improve.

Louisville has a real problem with teams that press

During his press conference last night Chris Mack pointed out the obvious, Louisville struggled with the press and has been struggling with the press, saying:

"“We’ve been bothered by several long, athletic teams and we have smaller guards, but that’s no excuse. We’ve got to be able to catch the ball at our spot, just like we did for the first 30 minutes, when they extend full court pressure we gotta be able to break it and get us in something, find the soft spots, be able to pass fake, meet passes, and finish.”"

As I mentioned above, Louisville has been pressed in each of the last four games, in which they’ve lost three, turning the ball over a combined 66 times. It’s hard to put a finger on why there hasn’t been improvement from game-to-game, but needless to say if Louisville can’t figure it out quickly the rest of the season is going to be a struggle.

With the way Louisville has improved from game-to-game, specifically bouncing back from losses, I really expected them to be fine if Duke pressed. But we all saw how that turned out in the second half when Coach K turned to reserve guard Jordan Goldwire to lead the press along with Tre Jones.

Goldwire led the charge defensively for the Blue Devils really getting into Christen Cunningham, Darius Perry, Khwan Fore, and Ryan McMahon in a way that left them all not really wanting to get the ball and deal with pressure. After the game RJ Barrett was asked about Goldwire, saying:

"“He comes in there and gets up under you and they had a hard time handling him.”"

From the 8:09 mark until 1:16, Duke forced Louisville into eight turnovers – several of which came by way of pressure of Goldwire. Whether it was getting up into Cunningham or Perry, or getting his hands in the passing lane, everything the sophomore guard did defensively worked and it was the biggest reason Duke got back into the game in my opinion.

40 turnovers in two games is a crazy statistic that explains why the Cards have gone 0-2 against two of the most athletic teams in the ACC. After turning the ball over 23 times against FSU in a loss on Saturday, I thought the Cards would be better – but Duke’s length & athleticism showed quickly that Louisville still has work to do.

Are they doomed? Hell no. But someone aside from Christen Cunningham is going to have to want the ball and want to overcome the challenge of a full court press as every team left on the schedule will likely attempt to beat the Cards with the game plan that’s been laid out for them.

Should we be worried about the way Louisville lost against Duke? Yes, without question, especially after they crumbled in similar fashion against Florida State. Is this the end of the season? HELL NO. This is a Louisville team who will take everything that happened against Duke in stride and come back out with a new sense of urgency. When it comes to tournament time, ACC and the big dance, I fully expect this team to take what’s happened to them and use it in a positive way.

It’s hard to move on from a loss as devastating as last night, but Chris Mack is a master motivator and he has a group of guys who will be hungry to change the narrative.

To the ACC and the rest of the country – watch out. Louisville may just be the biggest dark horse to make a sweet 16 run or go even further.

Go Cards!