Three takeaways from Louisville basketball overpowering Duke

David Johnson puts on a defensive show

After sophomore forward Quinn Slazinski struggled to stop the buzzsaw that is Duke forward Matthew Hurt to start the second half, Chris Mack decided to make a desperate adjustment to contain him after he had scored 20 points in the first 23 minutes of play.

That adjustment was to put 6’4″ David Johnson in man-to-man defense on 6’9″ Matthew Hurt who is just an absolute star on the offensive end of the floor. Hurt scored four points the final 14 minutes he was on the floor before fouling out. Johnson was playing man-to-man on him the entire time.

On defense, Johnson worked to deny the ball to Hurt in the post despite his best efforts to break free. He was just scrappy enough to avoid a couple of crippling fouls while disallowing a pass to Hurt.

Johnson’s second half stats look terrible shooting just 1-for-7 from the field, but his performance on defense was just as good as Carlik Jones was on offense. The ability to play post defense on much bigger defenders was commendable and a huge reason that the Cardinals won the game.

Every game it feels like Johnson shows people something new on the offensive or defensive end. This might have been the most impressive thing I have seen yet at a massive size advantage against one of the best offensive players in the ACC.