Louisville basketball: Halftime thoughts vs. Minnesota

Louisville basketball currently trails Minnesota 38-33 at halftime. Here are some quick takeaways from the first 20 minutes.

Damn it feels good to be back in the NCAA Tournament. After missing last year’s tournament, Louisville basketball got their chance to shine in the 2019 NCAA Tournament, starting today in a seven/ten matchup against Minnesota.

The headlines of Louisville being paired against the son of the former coach who was fired promptly during college basketball’s biggest scandals in years was the perfect way for the NCAA to get things going in 2019. The Cards and the Gophers were the first game to tip off in 2019 and they haven’t disappointed.

Currently at the break, Louisville is down by five with leading the way with Steven Enoch and Jordan leading in points with. While Minnesota’s Amir Coffey has 13.

Even with some offensive struggles and a Minnesota getting hot from deep, the Cards have played well enough to be in the lead. Here are some quick takeaways from the first half.

Offensive flow isn’t great for Louisville

Louisville has struggled to get anything going in the half-court offense, and a lot of that can be credited to Minnesota forcing Louisville to set up their offense way further out than they normally would. Dupree McBrayer, Minnesota’s point guard, did a great job of pressuring the ball and Christen Cunningham which really forced the Cards into running the shot clock down and even forcing up bad looks. Steven Enoch really helped Louisville get going with his early buckets around the paint, and was a huge part of the 9-2 run during the middle of the half for the Cards. A huge win for Minnesota was in the passing lanes, as Richard Pitino mentioned that his team had upwards of 16 deselection in the first half.

Louisville shot 13 of 29  from the field in the first half, and if that doesn’t improve and easier shots are found out of offensive sets the Cards could be in trouble. As we’ve talked about all year, the Cards are a solid shooting team but when they force offense it’s almost as bad as turnovers. Against a great rebounding team like Minnesota, you just can’t hand them extra possessions.

However, what I will say about the offense is that it was very well balanced. Everyone who played in the first half (aside from VJ King) scored at least once, with Steven Enoch and Jordan Nwora leading the way.

3-Point Shooting

Minnesota came into this game shooting 32.1 percent from three, which is 291st in the country and averaged 5 made threes per game. Louisville sagged off through the majority of the half defensively and let Minnesota take shots that weren’t really considered “great looks” and while the majority of them missed, the Gophers did hit an incredible six threes (incredible for them) and it was a huge part of them getting the lead and maintaining it throughout the majority of the half. Amir Coffey who shoots 30% from deep hit three of them, while Gabe Kauscher, the team’s best 3 point shooter, hit two.

Those are shots that I can live with and I’d be willing to bet the same for Chris Mack. As long as Louisville is able to keep Amir Coffey from driving to the paint, where he is absolutely lethal (and was lethal throughout the first half) and deny post pass entry to Jordan Murphy and Daniel Oturu, I think they’ll be okay.

Rebounding

As we’ve been detailing all week long leading up to today’s games, the Gophers are a great rebounding team and Louisville did a great job of sticking with them throughout the half. Even with Minnesota’s hot shooting, the Cards were able to grab 18 rebounds to Minnesota’s 17 and grabbed six offensive boards.

Fans take a deep breath, there is still a lot of time to play. Losing to Minnesota is not ideal, because of course, but they hit more threes in this half than they’ve averaged on the season. If Louisville is able to continue to keep the bigs out of the paint and rebound like they have, while clamping down a bit defensively (especially outside) I think the Cards are going to be just fine.

Go Cards!