Louisville Basketball: Offense Shines in Opening Night Win Over UMBC

Louisville Defeats UMBC in A Shootout To Start 1-0

The Louisville Cardinals are .500 for the first time since in 22 months, and Cardinal fans can finally rejoice in having a 1-0 start for the first time in the Kenny Payne era.

The Cardinals went into the game as a -7.5 point favorite and everyone knew at the first media timeout that Louisville wasn’t going to cover. The Cardinals were in a shootout with the UMBC Retrievers in what was an intense game to watch.

Louisville looked much improved from the 2 exhibition games they played earlier last month, especially offensively. Louisville scored 94 points, and over 50+ in the 2nd half. The defense needs to be much improved though. Allowing nearly 100 points to a UMBC team that is not very good is not something that Kenny Payne’s team should be doing. UMBC did make a lot of contested 3s but allowing them to make 11 threes and shoot 50% from there is simply embarrassing.

Louisville did make some defensive stops when they needed them most, but they were still very few and far between. The Cardinals also did very well on the boards last night where they outrebounded UMBC 47-35. This is much improved from being outrebounded by 10+ to Kentucky Wesleyan.

The Cardinal offense looked very good

Louisville seemed to be able to score at will against UMBC and the paint presence the Cardinals had was outmatched. Louisville did not shoot well from three, as they shot 2/14 from beyond the arc, totaling to a low 14.3% from three. However, Louisville was dominant in the paint and bullied the smaller UMBC team down low. Mike James was the best player of the night as he attacked the rim and got to the line a bunch last night. James finished with 25 points, 10 rebounds, and shot 13/14 from the free throw line. James also did not make a 3 pointer in the game, and the fact he was still able to score 25 is fairly impressive.

JJ Traynor and Brandon Huntley-Hatfield also looked very good last night. Traynor didn’t start the game but had several key shots, big rebounds, and even scored the final bucket for the Cardinals. He finished with 13 points and 3 rebounds. Huntley-Hatfield also looked really good last night, as he hustled for nearly the entire game, and looked like the player he could be for the Cardinals this season. Kenny Payne criticized Hatfields hustle and ability to rebound in the past 2 exhibition games, but after putting up 10 rebounds and a block last night, Payne praised his efforts.

The freshman look decent as well in the win. Curtis Williams and Kaleb Glenn looked sharp moving around the ball, even though they didn’t get much action. Dennis Evans started the game but didn’t get a lot of play in the 2nd half, after playing lackluster defense in the first half.

The big surprise from the game was Ty-Laur Johnson’s performance. Johnson scored 12 points on 4/6 shooting, along with 2 assists, 2 rebounds, and a steal. Johnson played some key minutes late in the game with Skyy Clark, and it was a great lineup for the Cardinals. He had some key passes and a huge 3 for Louisville late in the 2nd half. The lineup of Clark and Johnson may be something to look out for in the future.

Louisville’s defense doesn’t look improved

The Cardinal defense did not look very good last night, but that could be due to UMBC shooting 50% from 3 last night. The Cardinal defense got beat backdoor, was late on contests, and in the first half they looked flat and lazy. If Payne can get his team to come out with the fire they played with in the last 5 minutes of the 2nd half, they might have won this game handedly.

WIth UMBC making 11 threes and Louisville only making 61% of their free throws, and shooting 14% from 3, you can see how it was just a mixture of unlucky things for the Cardinals. If Louisville makes more of their free throws and threes while UMBC misses some of the highly contested threes they made, Louisville could have won by a lot more than 1.

I’m gracious that Kenny Payne and the Cardinals are 1-0, but they certainly need to tighten up some things if they want to continue this type of success in the future.