Louisville basketball: Why Cards can win the ACC Tournament

As Louisville basketball looks to make a push towards an ACC Tournament title, here are three reasons why the Cards can win the whole thing.

Well, folks, we’ve arrived. After an arduous journey through the regular season and a stressful finish to conference play, Louisville basketball is positioned just about as well as we thought to win the ACC tournament.

A lot of the way we thought they’d get here- A three seed in the ACC tournament and only one or two possessions away from winning the regular-season crown- has been far different than what was expected, but Louisville still has everything it wanted to accomplish right in front of it starting this Thursday.

But is Louisville basketball truly equipped to win the ACC Tournament? I personally think so. Here are three reasons why the Cards can advance further than they ever have in this tourney.

The return of Malik Williams

When you get to March in college basketball, no team is allowed to make excuses. Every team is banged up and loses players to injuries or similar concerns.

While the same is true of Louisville basketball, it is surprising how much the narrative of not having Malik Williams has been downplayed of recent.

There’s a direct correlation between the absence of Williams and persistent injuries to fellow center Steven Enoch and the Cardinals losing four out of the last 7 games.

Of course, two of said games were against the top two seeds in the ACC Tournament on the road; But it still needs to be mentioned that Louisville is a completely different squad with a healthy Williams and Enoch.

We saw Williams return briefly against Virginia, and Enoch has begun to turn it on as well. The Cardinals need both to be close to 100 percent if they want to win the ACC Tournament.

Williams has become the vocal leader on this Louisville squad. Should he be closer to full strength this week, the Cardinals add size, rebounding, scoring, depth, and perhaps their best defensive player.

Louisville has been close to becoming who we truly thought they would be entering the season, but maybe Williams is that final missing piece.

Embracing the path of most resistance

I’ve done approximately zero research, and my findings are that North Carolina is the best team to ever be a No. 14 seed in the ACC Tournament. Perhaps I am wrong (I’m probably not wrong), but if the Cardinals are going to win the ACC Tournament title, they are most likely going to have to go through Syracuse or UNC, a Virginia team who they just lost to on Saturday and either Florida State or Duke.

Now, most will be cheering for teams like Notre Dame, Clemson, and NC State to spring the upset, but not me.

If Louisville is going to play it’s best basketball of the year, which would be required to win three games in three days, the Cardinals are going to have to play just as they have when their backs have been up against the wall all year.

Think about it. When Louisville is comfortable, they are not at their best. Not even close.

Comfort resulted in come-from-behind losses to Florida State twice, and no-shows against Georiga Tech, Clemson, and Texas Tech.

When Louisville knows it needs to bring its best game from the jump, it can play with any team in the country. Wins against Michigan, at Duke, and at home against Virginia, and losses on the road at Kentucky and Virginia were where we saw some of the Cardinals’ most inspired basketball of the season.

The Cards’ ten-game winning streak came on the heels of consecutive losses to Kentucky and Florida State. The Cardinals adopted a refuse-to-lose mindset in late wins at Notre Dame and at Pitt and landed the first punches on the road at Duke.

Louisville is at its best when it is forced to come out of its shell and become the aggressor. That’s what three games in three days type of scenario will bring out of teams.

This team is “Forward-thinking”

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, Louisville can win the ACC Tournament, and maybe even the whole damn thing, if the Cardinals see the play of forwards Jordan Nwora, Dwayne Sutton, and Samuell Williamson mesh well together.

Louisville has a lot of things even the best teams in the country don’t have, but maybe the most impressive is their terrific triumvirate at the three and four spots.

However, what we’ve learned this season is how the three wings play together.

Nwora is obviously the engine that makes this team go. He is the No. 1 scoring option, barre none. What is important is that whoever is in with Nwora needs to take his game to the next level as well.

Lately, we’ve seen a healthy dose of both Williamson and Sutton, but in my mind, Sutton has to be the guy for the Cardinals more than he is right now.

The narrative on Sutton under Mack has been his insanely impressive starts, but he has tapered off at the end of each season. I don’t know if that’s fatigue-related, or if it’s more of Sutton not being a more assertive player. Whatever the case, Louisville’s two most important players at any given time have to be Sutton and Nwora in order for them to advance in the postseason.

They are the two leading rebounders, the first and third-leading scorers, and pretty much everything for this team.

Over the last five games, Nwora has proven that he is on his A-game, and I think that is here to stay throughout this run. If Sutton can match the focus and intensity and become that second go-to guy on offense, then the sky is the limit for the Cards.