Louisville moves to 2-0 in exhibition’s for the first time in three seasons with a 99-54 win over Spalding. It didn’t look as pretty as the first win by any means, and yet they still won by 45 points.

Pat Kelsey looks as if he has his guys ready to go in year one, because these Cardinals won’t be an easy matchup for anyone. So far they’ve defended well and shown the ability to shoot the lights out if needed, which is always a recipe for winning games.

THE GOOD…

First let’s start off with the good. In their first exhibition game last Monday night, Louisville attempted 56 three pointers and knocked down an impressive 24 of them. That would’ve been a school record if it wasn’t an exhibition game, but the sheer volume and quality of looks was impressive in itself. Against Spalding however, the Cardinals only made eight three pointers on 23 attempts. Louisville still almost won by the same margin, as they dominated in other areas. They got off to a slow start in both halves, but settled in nicely as it progressed.

No matter if Louisville shoots over 50 threes or if they shoot under 25 threes, they still have the ability to blow you out. Having a multitude of ways to win will bode well for this team and that helps them become battle tested for tougher teams down the road.

Another plus I’ve noticed for Pat Kelsey’s squad is their depth looks tremendous. Louisville finished this game with 70 points from their bench, easily outscoring the starters. There are multiple players on this team that can score 15+ points in any given game and that’s a great problem to have. This time it was Kasean Pryor (26 pts 9-12 fgs, three stls) and Koren Johnson (20 points 6-8 fgs, four stls) leading the way in scoring for Louisville as they had the hot hand throughout the game. Both players are good enough to be starters, and I believe Pryor will be a starter next Monday, but that goes to show you how deep and talented this roster is. It’s about as good a team a first year head coach could put together. The majority of them can shoot from three and defend multiple positions. Louisville’s on ball pressure in this game was incredible, starting with the defensive menace Chucky Hepburn, who finished with six steals. The Cardinals ended with 21 total steals, one shy of the official school record outside of exhibition games. Everyone was flying around and making plays on the ball, which led to easy points on the other end. Really liked their overall activity on defense.

THE NOT SO GOOD…

Now let’s get to the aspects that Louisville needs to work on as of now. The first issue I noticed was the free throw shooting needs to be improved immediately. There will be a game in the first couple of matchups that’ll require them to knock down free throws down the stretch and none of them can seem to consistently do that right now, outside of Reyne Smith possibly, but they need to have a couple of practices on free throw shooting alone. The team mainly consists of shooters, so it shouldn’t be difficult to start converting at the charity stripe. It looks like they just need the extra reps in practice.

Those careless turnovers are the next aspect that Pat Kelsey has to crack down on, because 16 turnovers against Spalding will be 20+ against an ACC opponent. A lot of them are from trying to play fast and get their offense set up quickly, which is expected to an extent, but they can do that and take care of the ball too. This offense is too good to give away scoring opportunities no matter what the score is. It wasn’t a problem against Young Harris last week, so it’s not a glaring issue yet, but something to monitor.

I have a feeling that Louisville will be back to their vintage ways soon enough so I’m getting a little nit-picky, but winning is the cure to everything. The road to the NCAA Tournament starts next Monday and I’m claiming Louisville’s spot now.

The Cardinals will open the season next Monday against Morehead State (0-0) at 7:00 P.M. at the KFC Yum! Center.