(Photo Jamie Rhodes-USA TODAY Sports)

Not much suspense tonight in the Yum Center as Louisville beats UMKC 90-62. The Cardinals have now won 19 straight against unranked opponents and move to 7-1 on the early season. Coach Pitino is now 34-9 all-time against his former assistants.

There were a lot of different combinations line-up wise tonight for the Cardinals but it was the same cast of characters who would play major roles in the outcome of this one. Montrezl Harrell scored 14 points to lead five Louisville players in double figures. Chane Behanan had his best effort of the season scoring 11 points and grabbing 11 rebounds for his first double-double. Coach Pitino said in his post game that “Chane was the only player on the team that played well tonight. He was doing the right things offensively & defensively.” Chris Jones, Russ Smith and Luke Hancock each added 10 points and combined for five of Louisville’s 10 3-pointers. UofL’s point guard trio of Smith, Jones, and Rozier combined for 14 assists to only 1 turnover tonight. They also grabbed 11 rebounds as a group. Russ Smith sacrificed his starting spot tonight coming to Coach Pitino telling him “Don’t start me tonight, we have to find a way to get team first going.” That philosophy carried over into the game when Russ had a carrer assist night with 11. I’d say that epitomizes team first. Great to see this type of leadership out of this kid.
The biggest difference in this game was the advantage the Cardinals had underneath the basket. They dominated UMKC 44-24 in the paint, and outrebounded the Kangaroos 49-29.
Coach Pitino said in post game “we did some things well and some things not so well. We are getting beat off the dribble too much, maybe new rules?” The Cardinals defense did force 20 turnovers that led to 29 points but did allow the Roos guards easy penetration in the lane at times.

I don’t really know how much you can take from a game like this because the Roos are not a very good basketball team. Other than the reps and getting guys acclimated this one was just to go through the motions. I really hope the defense starts to come around. It’s going to be a huge problem if it doesn’t especially when we start to play a more quality opponent and teams that have good back-courts. The competition will get a lot tougher and hopefully a little more exciting as we roll through December and head into conference play.

Luke Hancock and Russ Smith continue to be very optimistic and positive about the direction of this team. They are stepping up as leaders on and off the court .

Russ Smith after the game:

Luke Hancock after the game:

Coach Pitino after the game: