DePaul Day Canceled
FUCK, what a horrible day, week, and month for Louisville men’s sports. We cannot catch a break. Having restored hope in football to only be crushed by the UK game, basketball start, and this whole Tyra situation is tragic. The one thing I thought God couldn’t take from us was taken Friday evening, which was DePaul day. We’ll breakdown the game and rate each player in today’s article.
Our defense looks great. We looked more in form with the pac line and how this defense needs to look running this defense. Louisville kept DePaul 36.4% from the field and 21.4% from three, who has a respectable offense. Keeping DePaul to 62 with the pace of play that happened on Friday was a good look for our defense since this DePaul team is more respectable than what we want to admit. We were outrebounded by one rebound to DePaul, 50-49. Again, this DePaul team is similar to us where they focus on everyone rebounding and playing at a fast pace. Towards the 8:00 mark in the first half, we saw the defense look the best it may have ever had by forcing multiple turnovers that led to us taking the lead going into halftime. The takeaway I took from this moment was our players staying in passing lanes and challenging simple passes. This is one key that needs to continue happening moving forward because this looks to be our team identity. My only criticism is that in the 2nd half towards the 5:00 minute mark we were getting beat getting down the floor and DePaul was beating us in transition, which shouldn’t happen with our depth and this being part of our identity as an offense. DePaul only playing seven guys and still beating us down the floor is infuriating.
This offense can only run through transition and is horrendous. Our offensive possessions in the half court seem to only go through a pick and roll then nothing develops after it. No cuts to the basket after the roll and seems to lead to contested shots. I’ll even criticize our transition offense at times because we are hesitant to cut to the basket. At the 5:33 mark in the second half, Dre dribbling with a 3-2 advantage looks great. Dre is the only one going towards the basket, one stays in Dres way and one is camped in the corner with a missed layup. I’m so glad my tickets are up top at the Yum Center because I was irate yelling for only me to hear after this. To stop complaining, Malik looked incredible in this transition offense that I never thought would happen. The first half comeback Malik went off! Malik was hitting all the shots full speed in transition and even did a nice euro step one on one with someone, which led me to shit myself. Hand up, I thought Malik couldn’t play in this offense but I look to be wrong. I went as far as to say Wheeler was going to fit better on offense, but this guy was in everyone’s way in transition during his minutes. Wheeler is great, but I couldn’t get over that on Friday. My general thought with this, is that Matt Cross will continue to start at the four until Withers figures it out. Cross showed to drive into the lane and create and take advantage of second chance opportunities when he wasn’t able to hit from three. Withers has not found his identity on offense and continues to struggle. This may be a hot take, but Locke needs to come off the bench and play more as a role player. Our offense cannot run through him and he seems to struggle to be the identity of our offense. Our starting five should be West, Ellis, Davis, Cross, Williams. Below will be my evaluation for each player.
West (C+): West looks to struggle with more athletic guards like he did against Freeman and Terry. West seems to be the focal point of the offense and it showed against DePaul. He may split minutes with either Ellis or Faulkner.
Locke (D-) : Maybe I’m being a bit too critical of Locke because he may not be what we thought he was, but he has looked worse over time this year. Locke is forcing contested shots and this may be the pressure of getting life for the offense. I don’t like the intensity he has with rebounding and allowed DePaul to get an easy offensive rebound at the 11:15 mark in the second half. Locke seems to be more of a role player rather than the life of the offense that others thought.
Davis (B) I could probably be more critical of Dre but I’m not since we know hes not the center piece of the offense. He crashed the boards and challenged passing lanes on defense causing turnovers. I wish he wouldn’t hesisitate on transition and take it in. The no call at the 1:30 mark at the end of the game was bull shit, wont hear otherwise, and I wont criticize him for not finishing because he was mauled.
Cross (B+) Louisville loves us some Cross with his intensity. His biggest asset is his three point ability, which he couldn’t find Friday, so he found it through hustle and driving the lane. I can ask anything more from this and is covering the hole that Withers has caused with this offense.
Williams (A+) Who would have thought this guy could score by putting the ball on the floor in transition? That euro step was wild and is all in for this transition offense. He continues to look better and sadly is the life of our offense, which cannot be sustained. I’m glad he looks to be back to what we knew he could be.
Faulkner C: This guy is supposed to be so much better apparently. He has good control of the ball, but doesn’t really contribute with scoring yet and am waiting for him to try to take over. I constantly yelled at this guy Friday evening for West to come back in, but I’m probably wrong.
Ellis (C+) Ellis created in the lane Friday, which I love, but struggled compared to what we have seen before. He had three turnovers in 18 minutes and Friday wasn’t his night. We played him at the one spot, which I think needs to change. Let Ellis be free and let West/Faulkner lead the offense. Ellis has really poor efficiency ratings on defense as well, which I don’t understand either. Ellis gets some bullshit calls from some white as hell refs for a reason I don’t want to say.
Williamson C: I like that he is having the confidence to try to score, which I feel like has been a problem, but he didn’t have it. I still want him to use his size more taking the ball into the lane instead of shooting floaters. He has presence rebounding which I love and am glad he can give this off the bench. Waiting for him to learn to score at will and live to his potential. Like Maybin, he wont get a good score until I see it.
Withers (C) I’m waiting for you to be who we know who you are. Withers is starting to show that he may be making adjustments by taking the ball into the lane and finishing. Hope this is the case because hes a big missing piece to this offense. Withers still had three turnovers in 10 minutes of play though.
Wheeler (B) I thought today showed maybe some criticisim and not playing at a fast enough pace. I felt like Wheeler was in the way in transition, which should be a quick fix. Five rebounds in eight minutes is monesterous. Cant wait to see him develop.
Curry (C+) I don’t know what this guy is doing in practice, but seems to be losing minutes quickly. He played three minutes and didn’t make any negative contributions, which is good.
Overall, I’m not panicking over this loss. DePaul is better than what this fan base realizes and showed our troubles. This team needs extensive help with the half court offense and Mack needs to respond now. The only worry I have is that Mack has never had many teams with great half court offenses and remember this being a complaint in the 19-20 season as well. To be positive, this team has loads of potential and has a very efficient defense and looks to have mastered this. Our half court offense is ridiculously bad on the eye test along with metric wise. This team is under 1 point per possession which is insanely bad and inexcusable. What’s even more inexcusable is losing to DePaul and I hope Mack understands this now. Regardless of how high I’ve been on DePaul, you still cant lose on DePaul day. I am sad but hopeful
Stats via ESPN.com and Fox sports.
Degenerate Card 