By Harry Barsan
Louisville will face the Eastern Kentucky Colonels in their final non-conference game of the season.
The Cards have now won two of their last three and will look to improve to 8-5 on Saturday.
Middle of the pack
EKU is a fairly average mid-major program this season.
The Colonels stand at a respectable 6-6 with no power five conference wins on the year. They recently suffered a 40-point loss against Pitt where it was close until the talent gap finally shone through.
Their bread and butter is with their stars Devontae Blanton and George Kimble III, and Jordan Crawford coming on as of late.
Blanton is red hot after a sizzling 36-point performance against Jacksonville State, while Crawford has averaged 10.6 in his last five games.
Blanton and Kimble III lead the team in scoring and assists, combining for 31.5 points and 7.5 assists a game.
Besides these three, the rest of the rotation are your typical functional-yet-average rotational squad. They are pretty average in total points per game, and shoot well below average everywhere, and having scored less than 70 in two of their last three games.
The Colonels’ spot up shooter, Turner Buttry, leads the team with 43.3% from three, but only shoots around two or three per game.
The one area that EKU excels in offensively is holding onto the ball. The Colonels have the 54th best turnover percentage on offense, and are even better at taking care of the ball when opponents don’t force steals.
Louisville has thrived in their own right this season by picking pockets and forcing bad turnovers, so this matchup will be a test to see which resolve is stronger.
Runt of the liter
On the other side of the ball, the Colonels have a poor defense, one of the worst Louisville will face all year. They allow their opponents to put up solid numbers on the court, as their opponents shoot an effective field goal percentage of 53.9%, among the worst in Division-1.
EKU is one of the shortest teams in the country, so they struggle with interior defense and grabbing rebounds off the glass. The Colonels only average 38.3 rebounds a game, and they give up one of the worst offensive rebound percentages to opponents at 36.8% which is well above the 30% average.
An interesting matchup will be the one against Kimble III and Chucky Hepburn, as both guards try to occupy a similar role on their teams offensively and defensively.
Both players are tied for 5th in D-1 with 2.9 steals per game while shouldering heavy loads offensively. What is perhaps most interesting is how both players hound opposing ball handlers for almost a full 94 feet.
The entire Colonels team is pretty aggressive going for steals, but Kimble III definitely leads the way. Louisville had a brief moment in time where they struggled to hold onto the ball following their rash of injuries, but they seem to have cleaned that up. This game will be a great test of how much they’ve cleaned up their turnover woes.
With the limitations of players due to injury and foul trouble in recent games, the Cardinals can’t afford to shoot themselves in the foot. Still, the Cardinals should expect to roll past the Colonels in this in-state matchup.
The Cardinals will tip off on Saturday at noon.
Photo Courtesy // Taris Smith, Louisville Athletics