By Derek DeBurger
Louisville basketball has reached a new low under Kenny Payne as the Virginia Cavaliers ease to a win.
After losing by 24 in their Jan. 3 matchup, Louisville needed to make some major changes to keep the outcome in doubt for Saturday’s game. Instead, the Cards didn’t score for almost six minutes to start the game, and during this stretch, they missed their first five shots, turned the ball over three times, and let Virginia get out to an 11-0 lead.
Because of how fundamentally sound Virginia’s defense is and how slow they run their offense, being down 10 in a game to Virginia is comparable to being down by 20. The way to come back against a team like Virginia is to stay calm and try to get their defense out of position—that just simply did not happen. Louisville continued to panic on offense and give up shot after shot on defense.
At one point the Cavs’ lead grew to as large as 30, and they closed the half at 13-41.
If being down by 10 to Virginia is like being down 20, being down by 30 is like being down by 100. You simply cannot win.
Virtually nothing in the second half mattered, and it showed how unserious UVA players took the final 20 minutes.
Louisville lost 52-69 in a game that was never competitive.
This was one of the worst performances I have ever seen and without a doubt one of the worst performances in all of college basketball this season. None of the Louisville players looked prepared for what the Cavs wanted to do, and none of them knew how to attack their defense—one that they have already faced once this season. Louisville was 4-20 from the field in the first half with 10 turnovers and only finished marginally better—15-of-42 from the field with 18 turnovers.
It seemed that while the team wanted to feed Brandon Huntley-Hatfield in the post, they were somehow unaware that Virginia doubles almost every post touch. After each double, Huntley-Hatfield didn’t know what to do with the ball most likely because no one told him what to expect or how to respond. It wasn’t until the second half—when the game was well out of reach—that the Cards even attempted to try to get Huntley-Hatfield involved in the offense outside of the post.
The once-proud program that is Louisville men’s basketball is now tumbling out of favor before our very eyes.
Louisville falls to 6-14 on the season, 1-8 in the ACC, and 10-42 under Kenny Payne.
Photo Courtesy // Andy Lyons, Getty Images
