Louisville basketball: Three takeaways from signature win at Duke
Louisville basketball finished off a wire-to-wire victory in style on Saturday to notch a signature victory against fellow conference front-runner Duke. Here are the three biggest takeaways from the Cardinals victory.
Hours later, I am in complete disbelief of Louisville basketball’s flawless execution down the stretch on the road at Duke on Saturday.
The Cardinals were in about as tough of a situation as there is. On the road in one of the more hostile environments in college basketball- a College Gameday crowd at that- with said team coming off a tough conference loss, hungry for a big-time bounceback win.
Louisville had its ups and downs, struggled to execute at times, and appeared in search of answers in some situations, yet found a way to step on the gas and have the last say in a game that could ultimately become the deciding factor in regards to conference supremacy.
Let’s take a look back at the three biggest storylines from the Cardinals’ heart-pounding victory at Duke on Saturday.
David Johnson is absolutely legit
What more can you say about this kid?
Chris Mack has all but offically handed his freshman point guard the keys, and Johnson is catapulting Louisville from hopeful to a true contender.
Johnson played a career-high 27 minutes, scored a career-high 19 points, and dished out a team high seven assists.
He’s still raw. Mistakes were made. Turnovers were committed that led to easy baskets. Defensive assignments were missed. But it mattered not.
When “DJ” was in the game, Duke had no answer. The Blue Devils’ Tre Jones is a probable lottery pick. He is the engine that makes Duke go, and he simply could not stop Johnson.
Drives and dishes, blow-bys, put-backs, step-backs, off the ball plays- whatever the scenario, Johnson was dynamic. Sure, there’s still some adjusting to the speed of the game. There’s some things that Johnson needs to work on, but overall, he feels like the savior for this team right now.
I’m not sure Louisville has had a more complete point guard over the last two decades that Johnson. As Mack put it in his Thursday presser, Johnson does things that no one else on the team can. He’s tall, he has broad shoulders but he’s still lanky, his wingspan is one of the best on the team, he can jump out of the building, he has a quick release, he is a fast decision-maker. Everything you could want in a point guard, Johnson provides. You have to live with the “bad” because what he bring to the table as a whole is so much better than the negatives that come with the growing pains.
Louisville was a special team already. The backcourt of Perry, Kimble, and McMahon still stands shoulder with some of the best backcourts in the county. But Johnson is on a different planet. With him, they can be truly, truly special.