Why Darius Perry can propel Louisville basketball again in the postseason

If Louisville basketball has aspirations of making a deep postseason run, the Cardinals are going to need to see some role players take another step up. Why Darius Perry can be that guy.

Darius Perry was pegged in the offseason by Louisville basketball head coach Chris Mack as a player who was becoming an everyday guy. And, for a good part of the season, there was a clear change in Perry’s game.

Perry started the first 26 games of the season, and though he began stronger in 2019-20 than in his freshman and sophomore campaigns, he began to fall by the wayside once again as the season progressed.

He scored a career-high 19 points in Louisville’s home win against Clemson and followed it up with a 14 point performance at Boston College.

However, when the wheels began to fall off late in the regular season, it was Perry’s inconsistencies and inability to distribute the ball that led to his being benched to make way for freshman David Johnson.

Perry has only scored 10 points and dished out five assists since he began coming off of the bench, and Louisville has opted for a heavy dose of Johnson along with fifth-year seniors Ryan McMahon and Fresh Kimble.

With that being said, a slump from Perry doesn’t mean that the Cards shouldn’t expect to see contributions from their junior combo guard.

Perhaps postseason Darius is coming.

However you feel about Perry, there’s one thing that is undeniable thus far in his career; He plays extremely well in postseason games.

Since his freshman season, Perry has been a part of 8 postseason games. Aside from one massive outlier (a game against Virginia in 2018), Perry has been one of the best players on the team.

In the seven games that Perry played significant minutes, he has averaged 8.6 points, 2.1 assists, and 2.4 rebounds.

Again, he hasn’t been a world-beater, but all of those numbers are nearly double his career averages. He put up those numbers in an efficient manner as well, never playing more than 26 minutes, and coming off the bench in all 7 games.

Though Perry has started in 39 games over a three-year span, the Cardinals have been able to rely on Perry as a sparkplug coming off the bench when it matters most; And perhaps that’s what they really need to manage a postseason run.

Consider Louisville’s first-round NCAA tournament game against Minnesota last season. Perry put up goose eggs in 7 of Louisville’s last 12 regular-season games as a 10-15 per game contributor looking to find his place. Yet, when it mattered the most, and Louisville was down double digits to the Golden Gophers in the NCAA Tournament, it was Perry who was playing with by far the most energy.

A player whose main criticism has been carelessness with the ball chipped in 4 assists to 0 turnovers. Late in the game, Perry was bringing full-court pressure and taking chances on both sides of the ball. He finished the game with 12 points, the aforementioned 4 assists, and 2 boards.

That’s all Louisville is really looking for this postseason. Someone other than Jordan Nwora to bring a little more diversity to the offense, to get the ball moving, to drive and distribute in the lane, and be a dog on defense.

Perry hasn’t been that on a consistent basis over the latter half of this season, but he has nearly always been that in Louisville’s most important games.

Louisville thrives in transition, it plays loose when it has freedom of movement and can get into a rhythm, and the Cardinals are in constant need of finding extra possessions.

Perry’s other three backcourt mates have proven why they deserve ample minutes, but the Cards have also been the benefactors of some great games from Perry this year.

Perhaps this year will be different, but intuition tells me that postseason Darius could make an appearance once again in 2020.