Louisville basketball: 3 quick takeaways from Notre Dame victory
By Jacob Lane
Louisville basketball has the tools to be an elite rebounding team in March
The total rebounding per game rankings won’t give you much confidence when it comes to calling Louisville an “elite” rebounding team, seeing as how they are ranked 55th in the country. But what I saw against Notre Dame on Sunday was a team determined to grab as many boards as they can, regardless of who they were or what position they played.
Louisville has outrebounded back-to-back conference opponents by 15 or more for the first time since doing so in wins vs. Texas Christian and Alabama-Birmingham in the Conference USA Tournament on March 10-11, 2005.
— Kelly Dickey (@RealCardGame) March 3, 2019
Guys like Malik Williams, Jordan Nwora, and even VJ King rebounded their butts off and it showed in the box score as the Cards out rebounded Notre Dame 49 to 30. The Cards have been a solid rebounding team all season, especially in ACC play, out rebounding their opponents in 12 out of their 17 games, but it hasn’t always translated to wins.
Adding another five to seven rebounds per night kind of guy like VJ King, assuming he can continue his production from Sunday at a decently high rate could take the Cards rebounding up another notch at the most important time on the season. Most teams they play won’t have just one guy over 6’9 in the front court like Notre Dame did on Saturday but having tools like Jordan Nwora, Dwayne Sutton, and Malik Williams in your starting lineup and Steven Enoch & VJ King off your bench, means Louisville could bump up their average from 38 per game to about 45 if not higher if everyone plays with the same intensity and effort they showed against the Irish.