By Josie Simpson
The No. 7 Louisville Cardinals and No. 10 Nebraska Cornhuskers will square off in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Musical chairs
Nebraska’s offense is little more than a two-woman game.
Alexis Markowski leads the charge with 16.5 points and 7.9 rebounds per game while shooting 47.8% from the field. She also averages 1.5 assists at the center position.
She sits at 6-foot-3 and is the tallest player on her team. While she doesn’t tower above most teams, Louisville among them, she is versatile enough to take bigs out of their comfort zones when guarding her.
Britt Prince provides a dynamic scoring threat, averaging 13.4 points and shooting 39.8% from three. She leads the Cornhuskers in assists with 3.7, but her teammates are not far behind.
Nebraska is 12th in the country with 17.9 assists a game, so the ball is free flowing in this offense. Louisville will need to stay alert defensively, and rotate effectively whenever necessary. Fortunately for the Cards, they are great at forcing turnovers, so this could easily turn into a battle between sound passing and disrupting the passing lanes.
Other areas where Nebraska thrives is rebounding and three-point shooting. They haul in 38.3 rebounds a game and have a rebounding margin of five.
As for their three-point shooting, the Cornhuskers hit 37.3% which is 11th in the country. While they hit at a very high rate, they don’t jack up threes for a full 40 minutes. Louisville’s late-season resurgence came as their perimeter defense took a huge step forward. Keeping up that production will be crucial is the Cards want to advance to the second round.
D-fense?
Nebraska’s defense is less impressive, giving up 68.4 points per game on 41.9% shooting from the field and 32.7% from three.
Those are all average to bad numbers, with their 3.1 blocks a game also clocking in at a painfully average rank (tied for 163rd).
Where Nebraska’s defense is really lacking is their aggressiveness and ability to force turnovers. The Cornhuskers only force 13.8 turnovers with 6.9 steals a game, both are bottom 100 nationally. Louisville has had turnover problems at times this season, but has become much better at holding onto the ball since midseason.
The game plan for Louisville is quite clear: slow down Markowski, defend the arc and win the turnover battle.
The matchup will be tough, but the Cards absolutely have what it takes to get the win.
Tip-off is set for Friday at 6 p.m. in Fort Worth, Texas.
Photo Courtesy // Taris Smith, Louisville Athletics
