By Derek DeBurger
In what feels like a breaking point for many fans, the Louisville men’s basketball team put up another dismal performance against the Arkansas State Red Wolves.
Wednesday’s game started much closer than a rational person would think it should, and for good reason. The Cards allowed the Wolves to consistently drive by them in man-to-man defenses and only switched to a zone defense for two possessions.
On the bright side, Ty-Laur Johnson finally got inserted into the starting lineup for the first time this season and his impact was felt immediately. On two of the Cards’ first three possessions, Johnson found Brandon Huntley-Hatfield for layups, and that was enough to get him playing like a man on a mission. After scoring the first six points of the game for the Cards, head coach Kenny Payne inexplicably subbed Huntley-Hatfield out leading to a three-minute drought.
The Cards and the Wolves traded shots back and forth, with Louisville trailing nearly the entire time until Mike James buzzer beater, taking a 31-29 lead into the half.
I don’t know what happened in the locker rooms, but Arkansas State came to play in the second half and the Cards looked like they didn’t want to be there. Louisville was outhustled, outplayed, and outcoached, failing to correct mistakes that they made earlier in the game and this season. At one point Arkansas State had pushed the lead up to 19 points. The Cards only lost the game by 12 due to a 7-0 run to end the game.
Louisville loses 63-75.
There’s not much to say that hasn’t been said, but I’ll try.
There’s no rhyme or reason to what decisions are made. Huntley-Hatfield and an amazing game, scoring 20 points and grabbing 11 rebounds, yet he was not made the focal point of the offense. Johnson finally got into the starting lineup but only played 22 minutes despite getting three of the Cards’ five assists for the game.
Louisville virtually tried nothing different on defense until they found themselves down double digits and without any of the momentum. When Ty-Laur Johnson fouled out of the game, Hercy Miller came in as his replacement and did an incredible job guarding what had previously been the unstoppable drives to the basket by the Red Wolves. As well as Miller played in his two minutes, there wasn’t even a consideration of putting him in the game until the refs forced Payne’s hand.
Every decision feels like it’s coming from an AI, but there’s no indication that it’ll ever learn.
The Cards are now 4-6 on the year, and it doesn’t look like there are too many wins left on the schedule.
