Louisville basketball: Examining the fall out from back-to-back losses

USA Today –

Finally, we stop at USA Today, who took it a bit easier on the Cards in their updated bracketology moving them from the two down to the three seed line.

Their first-round matchup would take place in St. Louis, which would be great for fans who want to travel, and would come against Wright State and pair them against the winner of no. 6 Colorado or no. 11 Cincinnati in the second round.

As I said before, if at all possible Louisville ending up on the three seed line may be the most possible scenario for them to make a long run to the Final Four.

A four or five seed matchup would give them a second-round game against a six or 11 seed, before moving on to the Sweet 16 where they would likely meet a two-seed. When they play as a four or five it would mean a likely Sweet 16 run in with the no. 1 seed in the bracket.

While I like the placement of Louisville’s first and second-round games (they’d get Wright State and then either Colorado/Cincinnati) I do not care for the potential of having to play a seven seeded Virginia team or potentially a second-seeded Maryland team in the Sweet 16.

Conclusion

Luckily these are all just projections at this point in time and there will be plenty of opportunity for Chris Mack’s team to get headed back in the right direction. Thankfully, Louisville has been able to avoid what the NCAA Tournament Committee would consider “bad losses” up until this point in the season, which is why their seed placement shouldn’t move too much, assuming they don’t lose to another bad team again.

The margin for error, however, has shrunken considerably for the Cards. The difficult games aren’t over, either.

Louisville gets Syracuse on Wednesday night in a must-win game against a team with a funky defense that’s given them fits in years past (remember last year?) and then follow that up with North Carolina on Saturday afternoon, before a quick turnaround on Monday at Florida State.

I definitely don’t see the Cards winning out, so let’s get that off the table, but winning games against teams you’re supposed to beat has to be a priority moving forward. It’s beyond clear that Chris Mack has to make more adjustments to the starting five, including moving Nwora back to his normal spot, and figure out what rotation he’s going to use down the stretch.

Once that happens, I expect things to get rolling again for the Cards.