The build-up for this game really didn’t live up to the hype on Saturday afternoon in the Yum Center. The ceremony honoring the 1980 team was awesome; the uniforms were awesome but the game itself not so much. The Blue Devils and Cardinals played for the first time as conference foes and for the 10th time in their history. It was the Blue Devils that would walk away with the win 63-52 and now lead the series 6-4. The Cardinals have won 4 out of the last 6 in the series. Saturday was the first time in the last 3 years that the Cardinals lost by 10 plus points, they are now 77-11 all-time at the Yum Center and they are now 151-68 all-time vs the current ACC teams.
In my pre-game breakdown I felt like the Cardinals would have a great chance to win this game if they rebounded the ball well and was able to stop Duke’s offensive attack that is the most efficient in college basketball. The Cardinals had 18 offensive rebounds to their 5 and won the rebound battle 38-32. The Cardinals defense held a team averaging 83.2 points a game to just 63 points, and a very good three point shooting team to 4-15 from behind the arc for 26.7%. They also forced 10 turnovers and had 6 steals.
What I didn’t consider in my pre-game is that Louisville would come out and shoot 29% their second worst performance on the season. The Cardinals were 18-61 from the field, and 4-25 from behind the arc. The Cards were also outscored in the paint 32-24. This program has thrived on those fast break points and points off of turnovers and they got just 12 points from this combined. A lot of this has to do with just having a team full of streaky shooters but let’s not forget that on the other side today was one of the greatest coaches ever. Coach Krzyzewski hasn’t won 998 games without coming up with a way to shut teams down. He made a great decision having the Dukies play zone defense and he devised a scheme to completely shut Chris Jones down. A guy who was one of the hottest players in the ACC coming into this one had just 5 points and had just as many turnovers with 5.
Out of the Cardinals big four who had been averaging double figures only Montrezl and Terry came through today. Rozier led the Cardinals in scoring with 17 points. Harrell had his 19th career double-double with 10 points and 14 rebounds. He now leads the ACC in double-double games. Wayne did score 7 points and 4 rebounds today but was 0-5 from behind the arc. I have to give kudos to Mango for playing as hard as he could for 26 minutes today and for crashing the boards grabbing 7 rebounds. He was just over-matched on the defensive end of the floor trying to contain Okafor. A problem a lot of other players will have. Another thing that may have gone unnoticed is that the Cardinals have been shooting it great from the free-throw line. They shot 75% from the line today and have made above 70% in the last nine games. They are 14th in the nation in free throw attempts.
If I could offer any words of encouragement to discouraged Cardinal fans it would be to remember that 2012 group that was one of the worst offensive teams in history to make it to a Final Four. I’m not saying that this group can replicate that but they do play defense as hard as that bunch did and when you do that there’s always a chance. This team will continue to get better and learn to be more effective playing to their strengths. I also think that there are a few more guys on this team who will be devloped into effective offensive threats. The sky isn’t falling the shots just aren’t right now. It’s all about the journey… Go Cards!
(Video Cred TheCrunchZone.com)