Louisville basketball: Keys to beating Notre Dame
Louisville basketball meets Notre Dame on Sunday in a battle of two rebuilding teams going through serious slumps. What do the Cards need to do to get a win and gain some momentum?
February was a trying time for Louisville basketball.
After a nearly perfect January where the Cards went 7-1, beating two ranked teams in the process, and suffering their only loss on the road in overtime, Louisville entered a February gauntlet. The Cards went 2-6 over the next eight, and let double digit leads slip away in three games.
However, where February didn’t go well, March still has a chance to end well for a Cardinals team that has already exceeded expectations in a lot of ways. Louisville is slumping, but they have a chance to get the ball rolling in the right direction on senior night against a Notre Dame team that has not been able to finish games in conference play.
The Irish have talent, but they are inexperienced, and we are taking a look at what the Cards need to do to take advantage of this Notre Dame squad.
Outrebound Notre Dame by a significant margin
If Notre Dame is going to win, it starts on the inside with their Junior anchor John Mooney. Mooney (14 ppg, 10.8 rpg) is the only player on the team that averages more than 4 boards a game. Meanwhile, the Cards have 4 guys that average between 5 and 8 rebounds a game.
The gameplan should be simple: stop Mooney on the glass and rebound well as a team. The Irish crash the offensive boards well as a whole, and back-ups Dane Laszewski and Dane Goodwin do a serviceable job getting the Irish second-chance opportunities.
When Louisville is on offense, the Cards should make it a focus to go to the offensive glass early and often. Notre Dame allows the opponent to grab offensive rebounds at a rate of 33% in conference play, which is 12th in the ACC. Louisville’s bigs need to go aggressively to the rim and be able to beat up on a low-scoring Notre Dame team.
Take and make open looks
The Irish are giving up 36.5% from deep in conference play, and Louisville is shooting 35.2% from beyond the arc. Chris Mack is probably going to make a concerted effort to get the ball inside to a hot Steven Enoch, but Notre Dame is giving up 20 attempts per game, and opponents are making 7.5.
Look for Louisville to try to run the offense through the post against the Irish, but for them to also find a ton of open looks from deep. The important part is for the Cards to hit. If Louisville is hitting open shots, they can get the offense flowing the way that it should.
Take the ball strong to the basket
If there is one area where Notre Dame is strong, it is at making the opponent alter shots at the rim. Again, it starts with Mooney, but the team as a whole is 6th in the ACC in shots blocked. Louisville does a poor job of making contested lay ups, and having a center piece like Mooney to contend with can put a halt to their offense.
The Irish don’t send the opponent to the line much, so they do a tremendous job of crashing down on the offensive player and forcing a tough shot. This also makes it even more important to crash the boards on offense and come away with second chance points.
Win the turnover battle
Since teams figured out that Louisville was erratic with the ball at times, the Cards have been really bad about turning it over in the most inopportune of situations.
Louisville is the worst in the ACC at turning it over, but thankfully for the Cardinals, Notre Dame is the worst in the ACC at getting opponents to turn the ball over. As Chris Mack has preached for the last month, Louisville must place an emphasis on valuing possessions- specifically Christen Cunningham and Jordan Nwora.
Cunningham, after looking nearly unflappable in January, averaged 3 turnovers per game during the Cards’s down February, including 5 against FSU and 6 against Duke. Nwora, who is also averaging 3 turnovers per game over the same stretch, is even more concerning because of his general carelessness with the ball.
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With “CC,” many turnovers happen because it’s his responsibility to get others open- and he has done so, generating 6.6 assists per game in February. Nwora has 1 assist in his last 6 games. His turnovers in Louisville’s meltdown against Boston College included one dribble off his foot while jogging up court, and another where he simply lost control of the ball standing at the top of the key.
If Louisville values possessions, they can really take control against a team like Notre Dame. If the trend continues, however, the Cards will continue this head scratching streak.