By Harry Barsan
With the official start of the college basketball season just weeks away, the unofficial start tipped off Friday between No. 11 Louisville and the No. 19 Kansas Jayhawks. Unfortunately for Louisville, the Jayhawks came out on top.
Doesn’t count
Kansas got out quick with a 9-0 lead to start the game before Xavier-transfer Ryan Conwell scored the Cardinals’ first points on the year with a lone free throw.
The Cards took advantage of a few Jayhawk turnovers including an and-one from Khani Rooths to take a 12-9 lead.
A few mistakes on defense gave the Jayhawks all the space they needed to regain the lead, hitting a few key threes to make their lead a dozen.
The Cards could barely scrape together free throws, struggling gravely from the field in this early half. An Isaac McKeenely three was their lone field goal in the final six minutes of the first.
A seventh Jayhawk three took us into the half with Kansas up 46-30.
Louisville went just 2-of-16 on first half-threes, only converting on 31% of field goals, as well.
Kansas’s young star Darryn Peterson gave this squad some trouble, going 6-of-9 from deep and notching 24 points in the first half alone.
McKeenly and Conwell shook things up with a pair of threes to start the half. J’Vonne Hadley got going too with four points as well, as a Adrien Wooley three drew Louisville within 10.
Kansas continued to string together shot after shot, and the Cards failed to return each blow.
Conwell, however, found a nice sequence scoring five points in just nine seconds as Louisville clawed their way back in.
A fluid Jayhawk offense was more than this fresh Louisville team could handle. While the guys were hitting from three, scoring on just 3-of-12 two-point shots won’t cut it this year.
The Cards would fall by a score of 90-82 after a long night.
Back to the drawing board
A high-scoring night was ultimately undermined by serious inefficiency.
A terrible 28.9% (11-of-38) is nearly four points less than this team’s mark last season, which already left plenty to be desired.
Mikel Brown Jr., Conwell and Hadley scored multiple threes and combined for 34 of the team’s 52 second half points.
Conwell notched a team-leading 26 points on 21 shots. He also led the team on free throws, going 9-of-12 from the line.
Brown struggled from the field, collecting 10 points with a team-low 2-of-15 from the field. McKeenly managed 10 of his own points with noticeably better efficiency.
In spite of the low lows, there were some bright spots.
Kobe Rodgers looked mike a menace defensively, and Aly Khalifa showed exactly what type of magic he could do with the ball at the top of the key.
Louisville will host Bucknell Tuesday in the KFC Yum! Center for their final exhibition.
Photo by Vinny Porco / The Louisville Cardinal
