Louisville Basketball: Things go from bad to worse in Clemson loss

Louisville basketball will bounce back against Clemson they said.

After what I watched on Saturday afternoon from Louisville basketball in their rematch with Clemson, where do I even begin?

The lethargic offense? Abysmal shooting percentages? Poor defensive effort?

I could go on, but there’s really no need to get specific at this point.

The Cardinals must have left their secret sauce back in Louisville, wrapping up a two-game road trip that has been a nightmare of horrors for team 106.

Coming off a dominant win at home against Virginia, the Cards have majorly regressed in essentially every category over the last seven days that has concluded with two bad losses and a lot of questions.

Like Georgia Tech, Louisville allowed Clemson a major headstart – and they never looked back.

With a dejected Nwora on the bench during the opening tip for the first time in 54 games, the Cards slothed out of the gate scoring a measly 14 points in the first half. The shooting woes from Wednesday’s performance seemed to only get worse, as Louisville shot 15.6 percent in the first half,  just over 22 percent from the three-line in the game, and under 35 percent overall.

Not exactly progress.

David Johnson and Dwayne Sutton might’ve been the lone bright spots on the day, with DJ providing a solid stat line of 12 points, six rebounds, eight assists while Sutton led the team with 18 points, seven rebounds, and one block.

However, neither of those players went into this game as a pre-season All-American or potential ACC player of the year, which begs the question: What has happened to Jordan Nwora?

Coming off a performance that yielded only two points, Nwora’s struggles continued against Clemson scoring five points with four turnovers in 29 minutes. When your All-American totals more turnovers (eight) than points (seven) in back to back losses, you start to sweat a little.

In no way are these losses solely on Nwora, but it is concerning that Louisville has not been able to rely on what is supposed to be its most reliable player. Jordan is too good of a player to stay down for long, so I don’t expect this negative trend to continue nor can it if Louisville has any chance against Syracuse next week.

If Jordan can get back to his scoring ways and DJ can keep his play at this level, the Cards still have a great outlook and can finish the regular season strong before tournament play.

That could just be a pipe dream though if things continue to trend downward at this rate.

Coach Mack taking full responsibility is a decent start after a demoralizing loss to a .500 team, but at this point everyone just wants to see a change on the court, not arguing who should be held accountable.

The Cards upcoming Syracuse game has now become a crucial, season-defining one. How will Louisville respond? I would like to say the possibility of losing to a mediocre Syracuse at home should be low, but I’m not ruling out anything after this loss.

Great teams bounce back.

We will see just how resilient team 106 is soon enough. The Cards still have a shot at a phenomenal season, but it is totally up to them if they want to make it happen.