Stats were gathered using teamrankings.com, foxsports.com, evanmiya.com. Stats with parenthesis are the team’s national rank in this statistic. Evan Miya OBPR is a offensive efficiency statistic that predicts future outcomes. Evan Miya DBPR is a defensive efficiency statistic that predicts future outcomes. Evan Miya BPR combines OBPR and DBPR together.
| Stat | UL | UVA |
| 2pt% | 50.1% (162) | 50.6% (144) |
| 3pt% | 32% (246) | 33.3% (178) |
| Pts/poss | 1.01 | 1.05 |
| Pace | 68.5 | 59.6 |
| Ass/to | .996 (157) | 1.375 (23) |
| FT% | 68.9% (245) | 71% (153) |
| Evan Mya O | 4.9 | 8.3 |
| Rebound diff | 3.1 | -.8 |
| Opp 2% | 46.5% (59) | 46.3% (53) |
| Opp 3% | 32.8% (144) | 35.5% (270) |
| Evan mya D | 14.1 | 10.9 |
| BPR | 19 | 19.2 |
There is nothing like following a low point in Louisville Basketball history like facing Virginia on the road two days later. Fans are at rock bottom and they get to watch this team go up against Virginia, which everyone fears due to our lack of success against them. I’ll preview the team below and give my thoughts.
Everyone in the nation knows how Virginia Basketball loves to play. They play at a snail’s pace and want to play slowly in half court possessions throughout the game. Virginia is shaping into better form after losing games early to Navy and James Madison. Fans had glimmers of hope after the Navy win being by 17. It is always hard to put a finger on Virginia loses because if they play at such a slow pace and are not effective offensively by a point per possession metric then they will likely to lose. As its written above, Virginia struggles with this offensively. This could be a reaction to Virginia’s slow start, but rough to look at nonetheless. Virginia does take care of the ball and does not turn the ball over often and has the 23rd ranked assist/turnover ratio in the nation, which makes it difficult to change to a faster pace of play. Louisville will need to rebound well to ensure they get a chance of controlling the pace of this game.
Mack will get to watch his team go up against a legitimate pac line defense tonight that can control the game completely. Mack loves this type of play, but Louisville is just not good at it this year. Louisville will have to shoot out of this defense and find ways to penetrate the defense, which will be difficult. One interesting point that fans will see tonight is that Evanmiya has our defense rated higher. Granted, Louisville’s rating has trended down quickly over the past couple weeks with playing time differing, but this only makes me believe I’m overreacting with how good Virginia is. I’ll pinch myself since I’m starting to give myself some hope and talk about Virginia’s prominent players.
Most fans know about Kihei Clark, so I will save my time with talking about him. His role seems to be reduced this year with some new emerging players and transfers. Jayden Gardner is their leading scorer whose 6’6 and is averaging over 13 points a game and rebounding 6 a game. Gardner is someone who looks to score in the paint and will give our 3-4 trouble with his takes to the rim. Gardner weighs over 240, so I assume he’s a big boy that can push others around. Virginia plays Kadin Shedrick who is 6’11 and Francisco Caffaro whose listed at 7’1, which will make Malik or Sydney guard them. I expect Louisville to have trouble with him if they continue to play the pac line and Dre is not on him. Gardner is my pick to have the biggest night against Louisville.
There is not a lot to say about Louisville right now. The end of the Notre Dame was pitiful and embarrassing. I give Notre Dame credit because they do have talented guards, but I blame Mack for being so stubborn and wanting to stay in the pac line. My main points will remain the same for this game. Louisville cannot stay in man to man defense throughout the season. I wish I was wrong, but I expect this defense to continue to crumble whenever this happens. I don’t know on the status with Sydney but I do not want Malik in. Fans may not see this because Louisville will need to shoot their way out of this teams pac line, but our team is visibly better with a big man staying in the paint.
I’m not hopeful on this one. Not only the way they are playing but also Maliks presser was less than ideal for the team moving forward. Malik basically saying no one is responding to Mack’s coaching is something fans have assumed. Its worth looking it up and can find it easily. I have Louisville losing 59-62. It will be close but don’t be fooled since there will be limited possessions in this game. I doubt Louisville gets their pace and will struggle with Virginia’s pac line. My torture session starts at 7:00 tonight and we’ll see how bad it gets.
-degenerateCARD
Stats via teamrankings.com, evanmiya.com, foxsports.com, haslemetrics.com
Degenerate Card 