Louisville basketball is getting a lot of national attention at the moment, as the Cardinals have won five straight and are one win away from their 20th win of the season. The Cardinals are back to being projected as a No. 5 or No. 6 seed, and the fans are saying this team has what it takes to make a run in the NCAA Tournament once again.
There are many reasons this team has received the spotlight throughout this five-game win streak, but the player front and center is Mikel Brown Jr. After winning the National Player of the Week last week, the Cardinals' true freshman has everyone’s attention.
The true freshman averaged 37.0 points, 6.0 rebounds, 4.0 assists, and 4.0 steals last week in the Cardinals' dominant two games against Baylor and North Carolina State, and he shot 60 percent from the field and 67 percent from downtown. When Brown plays like he did last week, the national media and Cardinals fans are quick to believe this team is a threat in the NCAA Tournament.
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CBB analyst revealed why Mikel Brown Jr. just changed everything for Louisville
Entering last week, Brown has shown he is an elite playmaker and scorer, but he wasn’t producing at the rate he wanted to. He was shooting just 36.4 percent from the field and just 26.9 percent from beyond the arc, but after last week, he showed that when he scores at a high rate, just how high this Cardinals ceiling is.
“If they are going to win four straight, they have to be an elite offense because they are not good enough on the defensive end to win a game if they are not playing elite offensive basketball," Rob Dauster stated on the Field of 68 YouTube channel. "So, to see this from him (Mikel Brown Jr.), it’s really obvious to say, but it’s huge, man. It changes everything about this Louisville team.”
Dauster makes some good points in his statement, as it is obvious, but it truly changes everything when Brown is able to score and shoot at the rate he did last week. The true freshman isn’t going to average 37 points per game the rest of the season, but if he can average 20 points and shoot around 50 percent from the field and 40 percent from beyond the arc, while still penetrating the defense and creating open looks for his teammates, then this team can go on a run in the NCAA Tournament.
Louisville is going to go as far as the future first-round pick can take them. The Cardinals showed what they are without Brown, and while they have studs in Ryan Conwell, Khani Rooths, and Isaac McKneely, this roster was built around Brown, and they need him to score the way he did last week to make a run to Indianapolis.
Brown is averaging 17.9 points, 5.1 assists, 3.3 rebounds, and 1.2 steals per game while shooting 40.5 percent from the field and 33.6 percent from downtown. Brown's dominant week raised his field goal percentage by four percent and his 3-point percentage by seven percent.
The true freshman has quickly turned this season around for Louisville as they went 4-4 without Brown on the floor, but since he has returned, they have gone 6-1, and while that one loss was the 31-point loss to Duke, Kelsey has made it clear he challenged his team, and they are responding exactly how he and the fans wanted.
Louisville has won five straight and has major games left against SMU, Clemson, North Carolina, and Miami, and they are all on the road. The Cardinals' dominant week last week just raised this team’s ceiling, and while Dauster’s quote is obvious, it is worth mentioning that this team does have a path to the Final Four, but it's through its true freshman, and he has to continue to score at a high rate.
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