Louisville basketball shows off depth against Virginia Tech

Everyone knew who the stars would be for Louisville basketball this season. But, now, their depth is showing what they’re made of.

It had been the David Johnson and Carlik Jones show for most of the early season for Louisville basketball. But new players are starting to prove what they are capable of as key contributors to the team.

Louisville was able to move to 3-0 in the ACC and 8-1 overall after a very impressive victory against a full strength Virginia Tech team that looks like a very real competitor within the conference this season.

It seems that Louisville is hitting their stride at the right time after their Covid break left them feeling rusty for a couple of games.

Louisville’s 2019 recruiting class is especially starting to flex their muscles as a whole unit. Five of the six players from the class are in the eight-man rotation seem to be carving out significant roles on the team and finding their niche.

David Johnson is certainly the star of that class and is an ACC player of the year contender early on. But it spans much more than just him.

Last night, Jae’Lyn Withers proved that he is capable of taking over a game from his forward position and that he could be a serious problem in the ACC down the stretch.

Withers was able to prove that he is very capable off the bounce and seemed to have been given more leeway by Chris Mack and the staff to attack the rim facing up away from the basket.

It worked… quite well.

He also thrives in transition where he can show his freaky athleticism and ability to attack offensively in so many different ways. One play in transition saw him put a gorgeous euro step on a Hokie defender on his way to finishing the layup.

His redshirt year in 2019 seems to have done wonders for the opportunity to put on muscle and improve his game overall.

Withers also had a monstrous block in the first half that gave Louisville a massive boost in energy as any huge swat does.

It was a huge performance against very meaningful competition for Withers where he finished with 16 points and 12 rebounds against one of the ACC’s best teams.

Louisville has more depth than realized without Minlend and Williams

Before the season began, one of the best things Louisville had going for them was a massive amount of depth off the bench. Then, that depth started to diminish with three significant injuries to Josh Nickelberry, Charles Minlend, and Malik Williams before the first game even began.

Young players like Dre Davis and JJ Traynor had to step up immediately when in a normal season they may not have had to. While those two have had their moments, they still are undergoing their growing pains that each freshman has to go through.

Samuell Williamson was expected to step up with all of the early season injuries, but that has not happened to the extent that many hoped. He only scored one point against Virginia Tech on Wednesday night and has been hot and cold all season.

He is only a sophomore so time to develop will be necessary for Williamson. But it is very discouraging to see him struggle so much after so much hype as a recruit. His confidence appears to waver over the course of the game. A confident Williamson is very dangerous. But one lacking confidence is almost a non-factor.

The return of Josh Nickelberry has been very welcomed. His presence provides a big-time spark for the team and his shooting ability is certainly enough to scare defenses. He scored five points in the matchup last night and has been very good at drawing offensive fouls since entering the lineup.

On one of his two field goals, Nickelberry had one of the highlights of the night on Wednesday that earned him some SportsCenter praise.

That is Jalen Cone that he nearly dropped to the floor. Cone was Virginia Tech’s leading scorer from last night.

Nickelberry has a lot of offensive skill and limited minutes during the 2019 season did not give him much game experience to develop. He seems to be finding a groove and could contribute more and more as the season unfolds.

Quinn Slazinski is another name that continues to improve as a sophomore. He looks like he has worked well with the conditioning program to improve himself as an overall athlete this season where he can defend on-ball and at least be respectable as a driving scorer.

His best asset is still his ability to be a spot-up jumbo shooter. At 6’8″ he has the ability to shoot it over plenty of smaller defenders. He can play the three or the four position and be very nice as a contributing player off the bench.

Slazinski was only a three-star player in the 2019 class so the fact that he is able to contribute in the ways that he has already as a sophomore is awesome for Louisville.

Against Virginia Tech, he scored 10 points to go along with 4 rebounds and he plays as confident as anyone on the floor. He has been an unexpected energy player off the bench.

Just as a reminder, Louisville is doing all of this without two players that were expected to make massive contributions this season before their injuries in Charles Minlend and Malik Williams. When those two come back, Louisville has an easy argument for being the deepest team in the ACC.

Alone at the top for now…

As of this moment, Louisville basketball sits in first place in the ACC despite being unranked by the Associated Press at the beginning of the week. That should change in the next rankings with a win over ranked Virginia Tech Wednesday night.

There were some reasonable questions after wins in shaky fashion over Kentucky and a shorthanded Pittsburgh team.

Since then, Louisville handled Boston College and knocked off a Virginia Tech team that started the first three minutes of the game off on an 11-0 run. They showed resiliency and fight for such a young team and that shows they do not lack confidence.

Closing out the final portions of games strong has got to be a focus point for this squad and is certainly cause for concern in the future. But the bottom line is that they are winning consistently right now and they are showing the nation that the loss to Wisconsin could not be viewed as any more than just a fluke.

Louisville’s depth is building themselves up at the right time with Charles Minlend’s return on the horizon and Malik Williams’s coming down the line soon.

Entering February, this team could go 10-deep with zero problems whatsoever.