The Louisville Cardinals will play one of their biggest games in the past few years this Thursday against USF, and Pat Kelsey must be prepared to make some much-needed adjustments. The USF Bulls play a similar style of basketball to Louisville, where they want to run up and down the court in a fast-paced game, shooting a lot of threes and making transition buckets as well.
USF guard gives Pat Kelsey and Louisville bulletin board material before first-round
Louisville basketball should have the advantage, as it will have better talent. Recently, Louisville fans/media have been begging Kelsey to slow the game down to take better shots and to rein in the high-octane style of play against more physical teams. However, this USF team is a squad that struggles defensively, and if Louisville can get them on their heels, they need to hit the ground running with Kelsey's classic run-and-gun style.
Final flaws Pat Kelsey and Louisville must correct before the NCAA Tournament tips off
Kelsey needs to keep the defensive intensity up in this game by ramping up the press that Louisville has shown a little bit more of in recent weeks. The Cardinals should play fast and have constant movement on the defensive end to confuse the Bulls in any way possible. The Bulls have not beaten a Power Four team all season, with their best win possibly against Wichita State. The Bulls also gave up over a hundred points to Alabama earlier in the season, and Louisville has no excuse to do the same on Thursday.
Kelsey also has to switch up the rotations if players on the floor are not playing up to caliber. This goes for guys like Isaac McKneely and Sananda Fru, especially, who have played below par the past couple of weeks. Kelsey cannot keep playing McKneely 35+ minutes a game if he continues to be lackluster on defense, and especially if he is not knocking down his shots. This also goes for putting Vangelis Zougris in over Fru if he is not playing with 110% intensity. Zougris has shown that he may not be the most talented player on the floor, but he will play the hardest out of anyone on the court at any given time.
Kelsey needs to play the hot hand on his rotations when players are playing well. This goes for guys like Ryan Conwell, who Kelsey will sometimes take out of the game for rotational purposes, even when they are on a hot streak.
Louisville has no excuses for not winning this game against USF in the round of 64 on Thursday, and he has to make these adjustments if things start to go haywire for the Cardinals.
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