Louisville basketball: 3 takeaways from senior night win over Virginia Tech

Steven Enoch doesn’t seem like the same player we once saw

The bold prediction that seemed to have a lot of momentum behind it from our staff at Big Red Louie was that senior big man Steven Enoch was set to return to his “Enochness Monster” ways.

An injury has hampered the redshirt senior center over the last few weeks, and it’s shown in his production as he’s averaged just 5.2 and 4.3 rebounds over the Cardinals last six games including just one game in double-figures.

Teams have done their homework when it comes to Enoch’s weaknesses and they’ve taken advantage of it. Whether it’s forcing him out high on-ball screens on defense or double and triple-teaming him on offense, it’s led to Enoch looking like a completely different player than what we’ve seen all season long.

We don’t really know the full extent of the injury Enoch has been dealing with and with Malik Williams going down with an injury of his own against Florida State, it has forced the big man to have to play more. His touch around the rim has suffered, his ability to rise up and throw down has been missing, and I really do think it’s messed with his confidence.

Against Virginia Tech all the signs were on the wall for a monster game for Enoch. With it being senior night and Enoch being honored, there was a motivation for him to give the crowd one last special performance on the Yum! Center floor. On top of that, Virginia Tech’s front-line has been arguably the worst in the ACC this season, averaging just nine total points between primary bigs, John Ojiako and P.J. Horne. It was all there.

While Enoch finished with eight points and 11 rebounds, the eye-test led me to believe that the 6’10 250-pound big man I watching wasn’t the same guy who I saw last year and even earlier this season. Even with the massive size advantage, Enoch never looked comfortable and on offense, it showed as he went 2/9 from the field.

The second half was much better than the first half as Enoch seemed to find better footing and was able to provide an impact as the Cards pushed the game out of reach, but even then, it still didn’t seem like the same guy.

I think we’ve all yearned for the day that the light turns on for Enoch and he realizes just how much bigger and stronger he is than everyone else. If there was ever a more perfectly timed “get right” game it was on Sunday, and yet we still didn’t get it.

When Williams returns to the lineup, Enoch will go back to the bench and hopefully will be able to settle back into a role. But as Louisville rounds the corner to post-season play, I fully expect Chris Mack to rely heavily on Williams as the primary big due to the more glaring limitations of Enoch. That doesn’t mean he won’t be able to provide impact, in fact, quite the contrary. I think there’s still a dominant game left him and I’m hoping we see it soon.