Louisville basketball: Examining the fall out from back-to-back losses
By Jacob Lane
It was a tough week for Louisville basketball as they suffered back-to-back losses. How will that impact their ACC and NCAA Tournament placement?
It’s never a good thing to watch Louisville basketball lose back-to-back games, but when the losses come against two .500 teams who have no chance at making the NCAA Tournament, it hurts significantly more.
Wednesday and Saturday’s respective performances against Georgia Tech and Clemson combined to be 80 minutes of the most frustrating basketball of the season for the Cards. Slow starts once again defined the week as Louisville was outscored by a whopping total of 34-10 during the first eight minutes combined of each game.
Chris Mack has acknowledged time and time again over the last few weeks the importance of bringing complete focus and energy onto the floor from the opening tip-off, but it seems his message is being lost in translation.
Following being benched at the end of the Georgia Tech game, after only scoring two points while recording four turnovers, Jordan Nwora was the “scapegoat” against Clemson. Instead of making changes to the lineup that actually solved the problem, Mack tried to send a late-season message that seemed focused on providing an effort.
Sam Williamson started in his place against Clemson, providing very little impact, and while Nwora’s benching didn’t cause the team to lose I can’t imagine it didn’t have some sort of impact.
After ripping off ten straight wins and going from the middle of the pack to being one of the teams talked about as a potential Final Four team, two-straight losses have sent the Cards crashing back to reality. To the national audience, their losses come as stains on what has been a rather exceptional season. Don’t believe me, read what Rob Dauster of NBC Sports wrote following Louisville’s rough week.
"No. 5 Louisville eliminated any and all chance that they might end up being a No. 1 seed on Selection Sunday this week. After suffering what we all thought was going to be their worst loss of the season on Wednesday, losing at Georgia Tech, the Cardinals came out on Saturday and … made five first half field goals at Clemson? Louisville trailed 31-14 at the break. They shot 15.6 percent in the first half. They were down by as many as 21 points to a team that entered the afternoon 12-12 on the season. Both Josh Pastner and Brad Brownell entered this week on the hot seat, and if they do keep their jobs this season, one of the reasons why will be that they beat Louisville this year. Wouldn’t that be ironic. The crux of the issue seems to be Jordan Nwora, who was benched at the start of Saturday’s game after being benched down the stretch on Wednesday. He did not score his first points until late in the second half, when the game was already out of reach, and is now 2-for-11 from the floor and 1-for-9 from three in the last two games. He’s scored a total of seven points during that stretch. So much for that All-American season."
As Dauster wrote, the chance of securing a coveted one seed is essentially out the window now for Louisville with just a few weeks remaining until Selection Sunday. However, sitting at 21-5 and 12-3 in conference play, the Cards still have a pretty solid resume.