Louisville basketball found a way to come back and defeat the SMU Mustangs after the Cardinals were down by as many as 12 points in the first half. Louisville was led by its star point guard, Mikel Brown Jr., as he came off the bench yesterday, but scored a team-high 20 points on 50-percent shooting from the field and 37.5-percent shooting from beyond the arc.
Brown led the Cardinals in their dominant second half as they outscored the Mustangs 44-27, including 12 points from the former 5-star recruit. The true freshman had many highs and showed why he is projected to be a lottery pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, but he owned up to some mistakes after the game and made it clear he has to get better in one crucial area moving forward.
Mikel Brown Jr. makes it clear he must turn the ball over less
Since Brown went down and Louisville went 4-4 without their starting point guard, it became crystal clear this team is going as far as he can take them. The Cardinals had high expectations entering the season, as many thought this could be the year they end their Final Four drought, and Brown made it clear that if they want to go on any sort of a run in March, he has to clean up his turnovers.
“I turned it over a little bit,” Brown stated. “I need to fix that on my end. That is unacceptable on my end to my standard, but we are going to get better.”
Brown taking accountability and full responsibility just shows how professional and mature he is for someone his age. The true freshman came off the bench in the first half to start the game, but he had a slow start, scoring eight points while committing five of the seven Cardinals' turnovers.
Brown was getting caught trying to do too much, but he showed what makes him so special as he came back hungrier in the second half, not only leading the charge for Louisville with 12 points on 50-percent shooting but also adding three assists and zero turnovers.
He has had at least one turnover in every game this season, and against ranked teams, he is averaging 2.5 turnovers per game. Louisville will need him to be a bit sharper with the ball, let the game come to him, and slow the game down, not get caught in the air as much.
The 6-foot-5, 190-pound guard owning up to his turnovers in the first half was exactly what the Cardinals fans wanted to hear, and it is one of the reasons why he is so highly regarded for the 2026 draft. If Louisville wants to make a push in these last 10 games and in the ACC Tournament, it will be behind Brown, who is the engine of this team.
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