I was hung over and depressed Sunday afternoon. Louisville’s bubble didn’t pop last night, but it surely felt like it did. Louisville fans seemed to lose a lot of hope last night and rightfully so. I’ll give you an update where my hope is at currently below.

                In my opinion, Mack tried some adjustments out that we wanted to see, but it didn’t work out. Louisville ran three guards towards the end of the first half, Ellis, Faulkner, and Locke, that made the offense efficient. Louisville struggled with this rotation defensively and I tend to think that’s where the big first half came from. I rewatched most of the game and some were contested shots, but it again was simply not getting around screens and them getting favorable mismatches.  Louisville did run a zone defense in the second half to address some of these players not making the adjustment to play the pac line defense. Mack may be accepting that the guys that need to play, Ellis and Faulkner, can’t play a defense that’s driven on man to man. This may be a sign of him adjusting to what the team needs. West did not play defensively to get as limited of minutes as he did. I tend to think this may continue and hope it does.

                Offensively, this team needs Faulkner and Ellis to continue to get minutes like this. Louisville needs guys that can create offensively and beat their defender on the dribble because no one else can. Louisville could see more open 3’s if this happens, but that’s wishful thinking at this point since we’re still not hitting open 3’s. Matt Cross had open looks consecutively late in the game and he couldn’t hit. Regardless, Jerrod West can’t be on the floor as often and Ellis, Faulkner, and Locke cannot be on the floor together due to them three not being able to play man defense without getting beat. This will create a big swing on what our starting five once was, but should be the answer for Louisville offensively. I will not forget about Sydney Curry. Sydney is earning more time and is justifying himself as a player that may need to play more as well. Malik may be showing to only take advantage of smaller or inferior big men only and Curry showed to rebound well and score in the post Saturday night. Mack looks to be making the adjustments Louisville fans have been waiting for, but I’m hoping this continues throughout the season. I would enjoy seeing what this team would look like with more minutes for Ellis, Faulkner, and Curry while limiting minutes for West, Locke, and Withers.

Player Grades:

Jerrod West (C): Jerrod finished with 2 points. Jerrod was limited with foul trouble and it looks like Mack wanted to see what things looked without him in there, which led to 50 points in a half. 

Noah Locke:(C)Noah finished with 6 points and 2 assists. Noah’s not as bad defensively as Faulkner or Ellis but still not great. Still not showing to help out other than making g 3s.

Malik Williams (C):Malik had 4 points and 7 rebounds. Malik did well rebounding but I think it’s bad when I wanted Sydney in for the rest of the game.

Samuel Williamson (B):  Sam finished with 13 points and 7 rebounds. This was the Sam we saw towards the end of last year. Sam was able to get into the lane and score the help us rebound. I’d still like him attack the rim.

Matt Cross (C-): Matt finished with 6 points and 4 rebounds.Matt had open looks today that would have changed the game. Matt’s game is supposed to be based off of this and it wasn’t there tonight. Not bad defensively. I didn’t see much other than that.

Sydney Curry (A): Sydney finished with 6 points and 6 rebounds.Sydney looked great defensively other than getting beat on a drive once. Sydney was a monster on the board creating his own second chance points and getting in the right spot off of guards driving in to dish it off too.  Sydney looks really good.

El Ellis (B): El finished with 14 points, 3 rebounds, and 3 assists. El needs to start and be rotated with Faulkner since their liabilities on defense. El is scoring against great defense and needs to stay at the 2.

Mason Faulkner (B-): Mason finished with 12 points, 3 rebounds, and 3 assists. Mason is inconsistent defensively. Mason is a spark for the offense but needs to figure it out defensively.

Dre Davis: (C): Dre finished with 3 points and 2 rebounds. That rim stuff was embarrassing. Dre played good defense getting into passing lanes.

Jaelyn Withers (C+): Jaelyn finished with 4 points and 4 rebounds. Jaelyn looked better but shouldn’t have had 14 minutes. He has to earn with less than 5 minutes at this point with Sam playing like this.

degenerateCARD

Stats via ESPN.com