Louisville basketball: Three takeaways from blowout of Syracuse

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LOUISVILLE, KY – FEBRUARY 19: Louisville Cardinals players fight for a rebound against Syracuse Orange players in the second half of a game at KFC YUM! Center on February 19, 2020 in Louisville, Kentucky. Louisville defeated Syracuse 90-66. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /

Defense wins championships

While Louisville’s offense has been the main talking point amongst fans during the two-game losing streak, Chris Mack’s hasn’t stopped talking about the defense. The trend this season for the Cards when struggling offensively has been to let that seep into their play on the other side of the floor.

Against teams like USC Upstate, Akron, Kentucky, Georgia Tech, Wake Forest, and plenty of others this season, Louisville has let early shooting woes hamper their ability and effort on defense. It’s led to bad shooting teams not having to deal with tough closeouts or anyone around the rim, and honestly, it’s been frustrating as hell.

I was a tad worried heading into Syracuse considering what happened last year, especially coming off of two losses, because of their shooting prowess. We saw it a bit in the first half with Buddy Boeheim getting hot as well as Joseph Girard III, but things never felt like they were uncomfortable. Louisville’s inside advantage, as well as their strong close-outs, forced Syracuse to shoot just 26.9 percent from three and the offense never had much of a shot because of it.

Mack emphasized this week that he knows his team can defend, using the Michigan game as the ceiling of what he expects. Against some of the average to bad teams in the ACC, Louisville has been far too relaxed, especially early, and teams have taken advantage.

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Last night with Malik Williams in the starting lineup, along with David Johnson, Louisville was much more aggressive, focused, and it showed as they racked up seven steals and forced 13 total Syracuse turnovers while making things very difficult for bigs Quincy Guerrier, Marek Dolezaj, and Bourama Sidibe. If this is the type of effort we get from them whether it be against Wake Forest, Syracuse, or against Florida State and Duke, I expect Louisville to be able to contend for not only the ACC title but the National title.

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