Louisville basketball is set to take on Wake Forest tomorrow afternoon in the Cardinals' 11th ACC showdown. Louisville is trying to make a late push for a double-bye seed for the ACC Tournament, as the Cardinals have rattled off two straight wins, despite a slow start in both of them.
Louisville has improved its conference record to 6-4 after a slow start to conference play, and now all of a sudden this Louisville team appears to be trending in the right direction. The Cardinals suffered an ugly 31-point loss to Duke, sending the fans into panic mode. While Louisville’s win over Notre Dame wasn’t against a necessarily quality team, it was still a conference win in February, and the Cardinals had a big-time 14-point win over SMU, which helped them stay in the AP rankings.
When the Cardinals fans look at why the Cards appear to be turning the tide these last two games, they will quickly notice it isn’t necessarily because of their backcourt, but actually because of their frontcourt.
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Louisville’s frontcourt has been one of the Cardinals' biggest weaknesses up to Louisville’s showdown with SMU, but over the past two games, Louisville has seen drastic improvements and development in the frontcourt production.
“I think so, it's very encouraging,” Kelsey stated on whether he is seeing progress from his frontcourt. “I don’t think there is any question. We have a very deep team.”
Louisville’s frontcourt showed major concern earlier in the year when the Cardinals were consistently being outrebounded and outscored in the paint, and it was highlighted by that Duke game where they were outscored in the paint 42-10 and outrebounded 47-26.
However, Louisville got Khani Rooths back, who has logged a double-double in both games since returning, and saw a huge game from Kasean Pryror in the last game, where he had a clear physical presence down low on both ends of the floor.
Against SMU, the Cardinals outrebounded the Mustangs 35-34 and were even at 9-9 on offensive rebounds, while outscoring SMU in the paint 42-32. As for their game against Notre Dame, Louisville’s frontcourt was the star of the show as they outrebounded the Irish 46-35 and outscored the Irish in the paint 40-22.
While Notre Dame is no March Madness caliber team, the Cardinals' backcourt struggled with Mikel Brown Jr. and Ryan Conwell combining for 18 points on 5-of-21 shooting from the field. Louisville’s frontcourt stepped up and stole the show from the Cardinals' backcourt as Rooths earned 12 points and 12 rebounds, Sananda Fru scored 12 points with five rebounds, including three offensive rebounds, and Pryror added 10 points and five rebounds.
This one might be the first game in which this frontcourt showed its versatility and depth. Rooths and Pryor provide a huge spark for this team, giving them height that J’Vonne Hadley doesn’t and physicality that Fru and Aly Khalifa don’t.
If the Cardinals' frontcourt can continue to trend in the right direction and carry their weight, and Louisville’s backcourt returns to what it is capable of and expected of them, then this team's ceiling will begin to slowly rise. Louisville’s next big test is at home against North Carolina State on Feb. 9, which is currently 17-6 on the year and the No. 4 seed in the ACC standings.