Our Cards have now dropped 2 games straight after climbing to the number one spot in the country. Losing last night to Villanova 73-64. The Wildcats are now 10-2 on this season when holding their opponents under 70 points.
Very disappointing night for Louisville fans and maybe a hard dose of reality as well. This is the time of year when a team’s flaws start to come into focus and in my opinion when the real basketball season begins. Our conference foes know Louisville just as well as they know themselves. And they know the recipe for beating our Cards. It looks like that recipe is pretty simple just protect the ball and keep the Cards from getting out in transition. Force them to beat you in the half court. It also seems that Louisville is losing focus at the end of games and is struggling to close teams out. They had two very crucial turnovers in the last two minutes against Cuse and had two key turnovers last night in the closing minutes. It just adds to this teams struggle when they don’t take care of the ball. Last night they turned the ball over 17 times, up from their team average of 12. Our All-American/Player of the year backcourt of Peyton Siva and Russ Smith combined for eight of those turnovers. Another big part of this Louisville team’s success is getting to the free-throw line. Last night The Cardinals forced Villanova into foul trouble and got to the line, but was unable to convert shooting just 12-of-24 for 50 percent. To me missing free-throws is the ultimate sign of loss of focus.
Not all was lost last night as Peyton Siva had 13 assist, and the Wayne Blackshear I’ve been looking for all season finally showed up and seemed to have what was his best effort of the season. He was 5 of 8 from 3pt range and had 4 steals to go along with his 17 points. I hope this was his coming out party and we will see this type of production out of him going forward. And Montrezl Harrell continues to provide quality minutes off of the bench as he grabbed 6 rebounds and scored 6 points. But his good deeds are being overshadowed by his poor free-throw shooting.
It’s time for all the hype talk to stop and please Sports Illustrated stay away from our team. It’s time for these guys to regroup, refocus and get back to work. It’s not time to hit the panic button as this time last year the Cards had a 16-5 record and were 4-4 in the Big East. And we all know how that worked out. I just think this team needed a reality check. Hopefully these last two games have gotten their attention.
It never gets any easier when you play in the Big East and our Cards will continue the battle Saturday as they will travel to Washington DC to face Georgetown. Another team with their back against the wall and looking for a quality win.
