A once promising season now in serious trouble for Louisville basketball

It’s time to be honest and admit the truth; Louisville basketball’s season is over, not literally but, for all intents and purposes, their season is over. 

In my previous post, I stated that Louisville basketball’s game against Boston college was a must win to give the fans and honestly the team hope for a legitimate postseason run.

The Cardinals were supposed to utilize a game against one of the worst teams in the ACC to get their offense back on track and get a win to improve team morale. something that was desperately needed.

That didn’t happen, not even close, it was an embarrassing and pathetic performance.

Louisville lost to the lowly Boston College Golden Eagles 59-66, who prior to their victory had four wins against ACC competition against Miami, Florida State, Pittsburgh, Wake Forest, and now Louisville. This isn’t a group to clamor to be apart of. This is the same Boston College team that lost to Hartford, IUPUI in their non-conference schedule and allowed 100 points to Providence.

Boston College allows 73 points per game and Louisville couldn’t muster over 60 points against the Golden Eagles. The Cards shot 32% from the floor and 20% from three while producing 14 turnovers compared to just 10 assists.

Louisville let two players from Boston College dominate them. Ky Bowman almost messed around a recorded a triple double with 25 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists. After scoring just 5 points in the first half, going 2/11 from the field, Bowman scored 20 points in the second half, 10 of which came in the last two minutes. Nik Popovic dominated Louisville in the paint scoring 16 and registering nine rebounds.

Steven Enoch produced a career-high 22 points for Louisville basketball, while  Jordan Nwora scored 13 points and registered 12 rebounds. However, they missed easy looks down the stretch to win the game, and played like a team with little confidence and little effort.

In his post game press conference Mack didn’t mince his words. After watching his team lose their third game in a row, and five of the last six, he spoke what was on his mind, saying:

"“We can’t play defense for 40 minutes. We let offensive struggles affect our mentality, and I don’t mean just as a team, but individuals put their head down, feel sorry for themselves, it’s reflective of our defensive effort. We start scoring a couple of baskets and then give them license, ‘Now you can score a couple of baskets,’ instead of clamping down. Sickening.”"

Louisville is in a continual downward spiral that they can’t seem to get out of. Overall the team struggles to score nor can they finish games down the stretch

It started with Florida State, a game in which Louisville blew a seven point lead with minutes to go on their way to loosing in overtime. The Cardinals blow a 23 point lead to Duke with 10 minutes to go. They almost blew a seven point lead with 15 seconds left to go in what ended up being a win against Clemson. On Saturday they blew a 10 point half time lead against Virginia on their way to lose by 12.

"“We played soft down the stretch,” Mack said. “Guys are scared. Guys turn the ball over. The moment’s too big for them. Really, really fragile group. Just awareness, scared, no swagger, no toughness down the stretch when it’s a one-possession game with four or five minutes left, winning players, winning plays are made in that time. And we don’t have any right now. . . . I’m giving you the G-rating.”"

This is a mentally soft team and when you compound that with limited talent, it will rupture a team’s trajectory whenever you’re facing adversity.

The Cardinals are finished folks. The team looks like they have checked out on Mack and his staff, regressing down the stretch of the season.

They haven’t been able to score more than 60 points in four consecutive games after, something unbeknownst to the Louisville program. That feat has only occurred twice in school history; 2012 and 1947.

They’re a team full of one dimensional players and teams are creating game plans against those dimensions and it has rocked the world of this Cardinal team.

Jordan Nwora is a talented scorer and he but can’t defend forwards with size and hasn’t been efficient lately. His shooting numbers have a been a tail of two halves. In the first 18 games of the season, Nwora shot 41% from three and 57% from inside the arc. In his last 10, he’s 32% from deep and 39% from two.

Christen Cunningham is a solid play maker and can initiate the offense, but is limited athletically which causes him to struggle with pressure. He has been averaging seven points and 6.4 assist in the past five games.

Dwayne Sutton is the toughest player on the roster and gives maximum effort but is playing out of position and teams are adjusting to him causing him to average 7.8 points in the past five games.

Khwan Fore is an excellent defender but consistently cannot give you anything offensively as he is averaging 3.5 for the season, and has scored 0 points in the last two games against Virginia and Boston College.

Malik Williams is just a big body at 6’11 and doesn’t give you much offensively or defensively averaging 7.3 points and five rebounds per game while shooting under 40%.  Steve Enoch should be starting over Williams.

Chris Mack had this team playing above their initial capabilities and now teams have adjust and exploit the weakness of Louisville. Louisville is in trouble and the regular season is concluding and there aren’t many solution to their struggles.

Louisville has two regular season games left. A home game against Notre Dame and a road game against #2 ranked team in Virginia. Then Louisville will have the ACC tournament and NCAA tournament. With the season beginning the way it did with wins against Michigan State, UNC, Virginia Tech, and others it looked like the Cards were prepared for a Sweet 16 run. But now, they’ll be lucky to accomplish much in either tournament they participate in.