5. Louisville dominates offensivley
Louisville’s offense appears to be back in sync and clicking at an absolutely high level. After a few sloppy games in which the half-court offense struggled mightily, the Cardinals have gotten back to playing cleaner, more efficient basketball, as the final score rightfully shows. Louisville recorded an extraordinary 24 assists against only 8 turnovers, a happy trend that goes against the Cardinals' recent outings. The offense appeared to be finding the right targets and open players, which were converted into points at a high rate.
The absence of Mikel Brown Jr. has been a major hiccup that the Cardinals (particularly the offense) have been unable to overcome since his first missed game. Louisville may be starting to find its groove and offensive flow without Brown, something Cardinals fans had hoped would happen as the injury timeline remains a question. Hopefully, Pat Kelsey and company can continue to make the necessary tweaks as this team faces adversity.
4. Pat Kelsey made a statement on his lineup rotations
Tonight was one of the first nights where we saw Pat Kelsey deliberately shrink the number of players he is willing to play in meaningful minutes. Ryan Conwell (30 minutes), Adrian Wooley (26 minutes), Isaac McKneely (34 minutes), J’Vonne Hadley (31 minutes), and a mix of Sananda Fru (22 minutes) and Aly Khalifa (16 minutes) are who it appears he will be rolling with in the absence of Mikel Brown Jr. Kobe Rodgers played some minutes to provide brief breaks for the guards, but the rotation appears to be pretty well set.
These 6 players in particular set the tone and provided the spark Louisville desperately needed for the turnaround win. The only other player expected to be part of this rotation and receive more minutes would be Khani Rooths once he is fully healthy. Shrinking the bench and playing your best players the majority of the minutes was another key piece of Louisville’s success last season that Kelsey appears to be bringing back for this season. Whatever (and whoever) it takes to win should be the ones on the floor at all times. It will be interesting to see how Kelsey treats future games after the major success the noted players above had against Pitt.