By Elizabeth Scanland
The Louisville Cardinals are back on the road to take on ACC newcomer in the SMU Mustangs.
This will be the first meeting of the teams since 2014 when they were both members of the American conference.
One-trick pony
The SMU offense is just horrendous on paper.
They shoot 37.5% from the field and 28.4% from three-point range en route to 65.8 points per game.
Despite a lackluster offense, the Mustangs still have one key player.
Guard Nya Robertson averages 19 points a game. Robertson is not an effective three-point shooter as she shoots 29.4% from behind the arc, but that somehow qualifies as the Mustangs’ best shooter.
However, despite struggling from behind the arc, Robertson is very effective at attacking the rim even through traffic. She is a volume scorer in the purest sense of the word, and she will look to get hers.
At 5-foot-7, nobody on the Cards’ roster loses the height battle to her. Expect to see Louisville switch one through four on Robertson to prevent her from getting downhill.
Every next-highest scorer after the other is a big drop off, with Chantae Embry being the second-leading scorer with 11.7 points a game.
Jessica Peterson is a big presence that almost exclusively lives in the paint. She scores on 46.1% of her shots, and she is the nations fourth-leading rebounder with 12.3 a game with 4.6 of those coming from the offensive glass. Peterson’s rebounding is entirely the reason that SMU is not in the bottom quarter of the country in scoring, she gives her team second and third chances to score.
Limiting the efficacy of Peterson on the glass will be the key to completely shutting down the Mustangs offense. Louisville is a good rebounding team that plays up to their competition, but out hustling a team is much easier than scheming around one amazing rebounding talent.
Trickless ponies
SMU’s defense is very similar to their offense: not great.
The Mustangs give up the 256th best mark in the country of 67.4 points a game on 39.1% from the field and 31.9% from deep.
Peterson holds down the middle of the defense with 1.2 blocks a game, and TK Pitts Provides some explosiveness on the perimeter averaging 2.3 steals a game.
Pitts has only one game this season without a steal, but turnover potential drops off severely after her. Louisville has improved their turnover woes as of late, and Thursday will be a great test if they can continue those efforts against a team not known for gathering steals.
This should be an easy win for the Cards, and they are heavily favored to win. However, Louisville tends to play down to competition, and is coming off the heels of almost blowing a colossal lead against Virginia.
If Louisville goes into Dallas and does the little things right, they’ll walk away with just one loss on the month.
The Cards are set to tip-off at 8 p.m. on Thursday.
Photo Courtesy // Taris Smith, Louisville Athletics