Space buns Usher was a lot better than I thought. Its not as funny as I think it is, but I had to get it out there.  Sundays win was a solid one and something to make me feel better with how bad I’m feeling right now with this bug. It’s a big deal for Mack to go alone without his staff and get a win against Georgia Tech like we did. I’ll give you my thoughts below.

                Louisville pulled out another close one on the road Sunday night to make Louisville 3-0 in the ACC. Louisville continued to stress getting paint touches, which I loved. We continued to have offensive sets that made guys cut towards the basket. Mack seemed to stress getting the ball in the paint which is a relief for Louisville fans because this is something he hasn’t done even when we’ve had matchups. Louisville ran a smaller line up towards the middle of the first half for what felt like a large amount of time. Mack seemed to stray away from this and play Malik for a large amount of time, which can be a bit worrisome at times with how injury prone he is. Mack was limited with help with Peagus and McMains out with COVID, so he had less people in his ear throughout the game. I would hope that lineup doesn’t continue to be ran out and either Wheeler or Curry are subbed in whenever Williams comes out.  A complaint that I will have is our last few possessions at the end of the game. We have a West turnover and Williams being goofy and dribbling the ball off of his foot to turn the ball over. Williams looked great tonight dribbling the ball, but back to back turnovers. This is one thing that a lot of people didn’t talk about Sunday night on twitter or on the radio shows, which I was surprised about. Either people will hate me for saying that or everyone mentioned it and I didn’t hear them talk about it.

                Louisville continue to look good defensively and continued to improve defensively. Louisville was able to force Devoe and Usher make mid range shots or threes for the most part. Devoe had 23 points and Usher had 17 points. They still got what was there’s, but definitely earned it the hard way by making top notch plays. I’ll give the nod to the two of them. I knew Devoe was this good from last year, but not Usher, my God he’s a baller.

Player Grades:

Malik (B+) Malik finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds. Malik continues to look better with putting the ball on the floor. It honestly looks more fluid when hes driving into the lane now. I don’t clench my butthole as hard anymore when he does this. I even will need to stop yelling “NOOO” whenever he take’s open threes as often as he is. I’ll bite the bullet with the take I had with that earlier this year. He is noticeable when he’s off the court. The hiccup dribbling off of his foot was inexcusable since he’s someone we have to rely on. Those last possessions would have cost us the game if we weren’t so good defensively.

Cross (A-) Matt had 13 points and 9 rebounds. Hitting those threes in the beginning had us rolling. Matt continues to rebound well and create opportunities on his own. I need to stop being so surprised by that. He didn’t get hit in the balls btw. I get being embarrassed by getting the wind knocked out of you, but  Maybin was right about that this morning.

Williamson (C+) Sam finished with 3 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists. You played the high post well in the sets against the 2-3. Not bad.

Locke (C+) Noah finished with 10 points and 2 rebounds. Noah still continues to have a hard time getting around screens, but you play good defense other than that. Noah is hitting 3s well but looks ugly trying to score in other ways. I’m going to continue to grade him like he’s supposed to be better.

West (B+) Jerrod finished with 6 points, 4 assists, 3 steals, and 2 rebounds. That turnover at the end killed us. Other than this your defense created so much for Louisville in the second half. Those two steals at the end is what I think won the game. Jerrod was lockdown against Devoe. The stat line would disagree but he gave him fits at times and forced him to shoot lights out to have that stat line. I still would like to see Jerrod try to score more.

Withers (F) Jaelyn finished with 1 point, 2 rebounds, and 1 assist. I feel bad for Jaelyn at this point. I think Mack needs to bench him at this point. The two turnovers he caused were embarrassing because he couldn’t be strong with the ball. Jaelyn can’t continue to take minutes from Sam running the four. Jaelyn can’t continue to take minutes from Sydney at this point either.

Davis (A+) Dre finished with 13 points Sunday night. Dre was amazing Sunday night. He finished strong at the rim and made it a point to make moves in the paint. Dre played great defense too. Love it.

Ellis (C-) El finished with 1 point, 2 rebounds, and 2 assists. El played some good defense the other night. What killed me was El hesitating at the rim and getting stuffed like that. He can’t lose his confidence after that Michigan State game.

                Regardless of me nit picking, a win is a win. I may be crazy for complaining about Williams and West turning the ball over late in the game, but that’s going to cost us games if that continues. Overall, we continued to look good defensively and that seems to be the identity of the team. I’m excited for Faulkner to come back and see how he fits into all of this because he did earn big minutes moving forward. Let’s keep it rolling against Pitt Wednesday.

-degenerateCARD

Stats via ESPN.com