By Derek DeBurger
Louisville returned to reality with a home loss against the NC State Wolfpack.
Reality happened fast. The Wolfpack jumped out to a 12-0 lead and forced the Cards to miss their first 12 field goals. Once Louisville finally took the lid off the basket they tried to keep up, but were never able to catch up to them in the first half.
It was the same habits that have occurred all season long—leaving wide-open shooters from three and failing to adjust when something beats them over and over again. DJ Horn had a great first half. Horn had 11 points and three three-pointers on his way to a career-high at NC State of 27 points.
The Wolfpack led at the half, 35-44.
It was as if a completely different team came out in Louisville’s jerseys in the second, wearing flawless prosthetics. The defense clamped up and Mike James and Brandon Huntley-Hatfield ran the two-man game to near perfection cutting the lead down to just two.
NC State called a timeout to settle themselves and find their scheme, but Louisville’s offense didn’t let up. Curtis Williams hit a corner-three with 11:55 left on the clock to give the Cards their first lead of the game.
Not too long after the Cards finally took the lead, they authored their demise. Whenever DJ Burns—the 6’9” 275-pound center for NC State—would get the ball in the post, Louisville would double him. Burns is a good post player, but not so good that he demands a double every trip down the court, so when he drew an extra defender he just made simple passes to find wide-open players in the post. The Wolfpack pushed their lead up to 14 points with just over two minutes left in the game thanks in huge part to Burns’ passing.
Louisville made a late push with an 11-0 run to cut the lead to three with under a minute left, and again with under 30 seconds left, but Horn locked up the game with drives to the baskets and free throws made.
Louisville would go on to lose 83-89.
The only way to describe Louisville’s performance on Saturday was Jekyll and Hyde adjacent. There was simultaneously so much promising and frustrating about this game. Louisville limped out of the gate and shot themselves in the foot multiple times by failing to make simple adjustments. On the other hand, James and Huntley-Hatfield continue to look fantastic—scoring 20 and 13 points, respectively—and the team is completely bought in.
I’m very confident that you’ll see a team that fights until the final whistle for the rest of the season, I don’t know if their fight will be enough.
The Cards are 6-10 on the season, 1-4 in the ACC, and 10-38 under Kenny Payne.
File Photos // Vinny Porco, The Louisville Cardinal
