Louisville basketball: Three biggest wins of 2019-20 season

LOUISVILLE, KY - JANUARY 25: Steven Enoch #23, Jordan Nwora #33, Darius Perry #2 and Dwayne Sutton #24 of the Louisville Cardinals take the floor in the second half of a game against the Clemson Tigers at KFC YUM! Center on January 25, 2020 in Louisville, Kentucky. Louisville defeated Clemson 80-62. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
LOUISVILLE, KY - JANUARY 25: Steven Enoch #23, Jordan Nwora #33, Darius Perry #2 and Dwayne Sutton #24 of the Louisville Cardinals take the floor in the second half of a game against the Clemson Tigers at KFC YUM! Center on January 25, 2020 in Louisville, Kentucky. Louisville defeated Clemson 80-62. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /
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DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA – JANUARY 18: Joey Baker #13 of the Duke Blue Devils confronts Darius Perry #2 of the Louisville Cardinals during their game at Cameron Indoor Stadium on January 18, 2020 in Durham, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA – JANUARY 18: Joey Baker #13 of the Duke Blue Devils confronts Darius Perry #2 of the Louisville Cardinals during their game at Cameron Indoor Stadium on January 18, 2020 in Durham, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /

No. 2 – January 18, 2020 – A star is born in Cameron

No. 11 Louisville: 79

No. 3 Duke: 73

There weren’t many people who had good feelings going into this matchup, regardless if Louisville had won three in a row since bouncing back from their first two-straight loss skid against ranked opponents Kentucky and Florida State.

Louisville was coming off an overtime nail-biting win against Pittsburg and the fighting Capels, while Duke was coming off their second perplexing loss of the season to Clemson and was hungry to bounce back at home in Cameron Indoor.

Enter David Johnson.

The Louisville-grown freshman phenom finally had the breakout game every Cards fan was waiting for, after playing sparingly and seeing flashes of greatness in previous games. When a true freshman goes off for 19 points, seven assists, four rebounds, three steals, and two blocks, good things are bound to happen. DJ only shooting (and making) a single three-pointer is one of the most impressive things from that stat line, besides his overall dominance of the Dukies.

I’d be lying if I said it was one of the cleaner games I watched this season, with both teams accruing 13 steals each while combining for a sloppy 33 turnovers (UL 17, Duke 16). I’d also be lying if I said Louisville’s shooting performance wasn’t a rare one. It’s not every day that you beat a top three team on the road, especially shooting better from beyond the arc than inside it. Louisville shot a very solid 48.3% overall and an even better 50% from three, not an easy feat.

In order for a pass to count as an assist, the player who the ball is passed to has to make a shot. Thankfully for DJ and the Cards, many of the great passes he made turned into assists because of his ability to always find the open man. When he wasn’t setting up open three’s, he was taking Tre Jones head-on and slashing straight to the basket.

The only downside to watching this game and DJ’s breakout performance, is pondering whether our major rivalry game against UK might’ve gone differently had he played at all.