Louisville basketball: Chris Mack has no shortage of PG options, but which is best?
Darius Perry – Junior
Darius started his career at Louisville in 2017 about as well as you could possibly imagine. 17 points in his first game as a Cardinal and then nine and ten in his next two games. After that, he only reached the nine-point mark one more time in his freshmen season.
Last year, he started the season as the point guard but watched his minutes drastically decrease as the season went along. But in the final two games of the season, against UNC and Minnesota, he scored in double digits in both and looked like he was going to be at the helm for UofL in 2019.
So far, outside of Tuesday, Darius has been pretty good. He’s still been slightly turnover-prone, but his high assist numbers have made up for it. But Tuesday night has to be talked about. Against Tech, Perry played 15 minutes and turned the ball over six times. That doesn’t account for the bad shots Perry took or his consistent arguing with his teammates. He scored only two points, took only contested shots, passed on open ones and kept making passes that weren’t there to make. It was a season-low in minutes played and without change, you may see more of the same.
Looking at analytics from last night’s Louisville loss to Texas Tech, the Cardinals’ top offensive rating belonged to Malik Williams (165.5), second highest was David Johnson (98.5). Darius Perry had 2 points, 6 TOs in 13 minutes. Johnson had 4 points, 0 turnovers in 7 minutes.
— Eric Crawford (@ericcrawford) December 11, 2019
There is no question Darius has the skill set to really help this Louisville team. But his attitude and his focus have to be infinitely better going forward.
Why Darius should be the starting/closing point guard: Darius Perry is a hell of a player, there’s no denying that. But as we’ve seen over the last two seasons (even as a freshman) he’s inconsistent at best.
However, when Perry comes to play with his head in the right place he makes special plays. We forget about the 12 assist game earlier this season, as well as countless other impressive performances during his career, and it’s because the “bad” nights far outweigh the “good.” When Perry comes ready to play in the right “everyday guy” mentality, you see what he brings; defense, shot-making, play-making for teammates, energy, experience and a ton of other intangibles that breed winning.
So what do you do to get him in the right mentality?
Trusting in Darius seems like the right move. Last season Perry went through a season where he didn’t take coaching and criticism well, oftentimes getting in his own head and outthinking his game. Another year older with a full offseason with Chris Mack and time to get on the same page, means you can trust him. Yes, six turnovers to zero assists is horrible and the rest of his stats over the last few weeks don’t tell a better story. But what I know is that when Darius is on, Louisville’s really good.
When he’s playing with the right mindset, he takes Louisville to a different level on both the offensive and defensive ends. And because of that, it makes sense to let him sort things out (at times) and make (some) mistakes.
If you get Darrius Perry playing at his highest-level by February/March, watch out.