Louisville basketball suffered an embarrassing 83-52 loss last night to the No. 4 Duke Blue Devils, and Pat Kelsey took responsibility and admitted it was an absolute “butt-kicking.”
“We got our butt kicked,” Kelsey said in his opening statement. “Every metric that you would look at that speaks to a butt-kicking, that’s what the stat sheet says.”
Louisville has many areas to improve in late January, as the Cardinals are now 0-5 against ranked teams, including Tennessee, and have lost by an average of 16.2 points. Louisville consistently puts on letdown performances in this marquee matchup against ranked teams under the national spotlight, and when the fans look at the games, there is one alarming red flag.
Related: 5 concerning observations from Louisville’s blowout loss to the Duke Blue Devils
Louisville basketball’s lack of physicality continues to be an alarming problem
Entering the 2025-26 season, Louisville basketball fans truly believed this was the year the Cardinals might make a run in late March. Louisville had one of the best offseasons, bringing in three elite transfers in Isaac McKneely, Ryan Conwell, and Adrian Wooley, while they also added 5-star 2025 recruit Mikel Brown Jr.
However, there is one problem, none of those are a forward or center. Louisville has a glaring weakness in its frontcourt, and while Sananda Fru is trying to hold his own, the Cardinals are lacking a pure center and some physical bodies down low. Louisville continues to struggle against teams with size and length, and that was in full effect last night.
The Cardinals were embarrassed in the paint last night as Duke outscored them 42-10 and outrebounded them 46-25, including 15 offensive rebounds. The Cardinals consistently underperform in these big games this season, and the clear red flag for this team is the physicality and size.
In the Cardinals' five losses to ranked teams, their opponents are averaging 42.2 rebounds and are losing the points in the paint battle by an average of 34-28. The Cardinals have given up a combined 170 points in the paint in their games against Arkansas, Virginia, Duke, and Tennessee, while scoring only 144 points in the paint.
Louisville's small-ball lineup of Conwell at small forward and Hadley at power forward is simply not working against these more physical teams. The Cardinals are undersized as Hadley is just 6-foot-6 and playing power forward, and Conwell is just 6-foot-4 playing small forward. On top of that, both transferred to Louisville as shooting guards and are now playing up in the lineup, and not in their true positions.
It is hard to win in March without an interior presence, and the way the Cardinals are playing in late January, this alarming red flag could be the reason they run into trouble in the NCAA Tournament. The Cardinals had expectations of making a run in late March, but with their inability to match up against physical, sizeable teams, Cardinals fans have quickly lowered their expectations from a Final Four team to one that might be able to sneak past the first weekend.
Louisville has a lot of work to do and not a lot of time. The Cardinals need to find a paint presence as soon as possible and need to have answers for these physical teams.
For all the latest on Louisville basketball's 2025-26 season and recruiting, stay tuned.