It’s officially a new day and age for Louisville with Pat Kelsey starting his career off in dominating fashion with a 93-45 win over Morehead State.

What an impressive performance in game one from a team that was assembled in the offseason. These dynamic transfers have been everything as advertised so far and they could very well get even better. It feels like it’s been a while since Louisville took care of business like they did Monday night, but I have a feeling that’ll happen a lot this season. This team is ready to compete against ranked teams today, with this weekend being their first opportunity, but more on that later.

Here are some key takeaways from the Cardinal’s stellar home opener.

It started on this end for the Cardinals, as they set the tone early. Easily some of the best defense played by a Louisville team in a few seasons. Pat Kelsey went out and got players that could not only score, but disrupt the game on the defensive end just like I stated months ago. Chucky Hepburn, Kasean Pryor, and Aboubacar Traore were absolute menaces on defense, those three jumped off the screen to me. The rest of the team played great defense too, all feeding off each other. Louisville held Morehead State to three field goals at halftime and only 14 points.

I love how this isn’t a very top heavy team. It’s more of a collective unit of highly talented players from the starters to the second unit. One guy isn’t going to consistently lead this team in scoring throughout the season, because there’s at least four or five of them that could lead the way on any given night. Against Morehead State, it was obviously Kasean Pryor leading the way with 18 points and 12 rebounds, but this team is built to have a balanced scoring attack and a consistent one most importantly.

In my previous article, I made a note about turnovers being a potential problem due to fast pace, but it wasn’t an issue at all Monday night. The Cardinals finished with 21 assists and only five turnovers, which they’ll take any day of the week. Ended the game with 93 points and only shot 45% from the field and 31% from three. This Louisville team has multiple ways to score and multiple ways to win led by a high-powered offense.

The Volunteers had a solid outing in their home opener against Gardner Webb, resulting in a 80-64 win. They’re led by reigning SEC defensive player of the year Zakai Ziegler and talented transfer guard Chaz Lanier. Louisville’s Chucky Hepburn and Ziegler are quite similar in play style and how they like to affect the game on both ends, so that’ll be an intriguing matchup. Ziegler can be a little erratic with the ball sometimes, which I expect Hepburn to exploit and speed him up.

Lanier is the better scorer in Tennessee’s backcourt, so I expect him to be the focal point of Rick Barnes’ offensive attack. J’Vonne Hadley will most likely have the task of making sure every look Lanier gets is a tough one. Hadley is taller and heavier than him, so that’ll be a tough matchup for him to consistently score against. If Louisville can take these two out the game, they’ll win on Saturday in convincing fashion.

Tennessee looked pretty thin in the front court in their first game offensive wise. The main thing will be locking their guards up, because Louisville has the advantage in the front court. The Cardinals matchup well with the Volunteers, overall. Probably better than everyone knows right now. Here are my three keys to the game that will result in a win for Louisville.

Limit Ziegler and Lanier as best as you possibly can. It starts with the two defenders I stated above shall they be the matchups. Both players are good and can make tough shots, but just make them work for it.

Make them pay from behind the arc. This game needs to be one that displays just how well Louisville can shoot the ball and they’re very capable. Get that percentage up from 31% and closer to 40% on high volume and it certainly wouldn’t hurt. If the Cardinals get hot, they could find themselves with a nice early lead.

Make crucial free throws throughout the game. Louisville shot 18/28 (64%) from the line against Morehead State in a blowout, but in a tight game those ten missed free throws can come back to bite you. This one could come right down to the wire and all of those free points add up. Hopefully Louisville has enough separation where it wouldn’t matter, but it’s definitely something to monitor.

Prediction: Louisville-74 Tennessee-68. The Pat Kelsey era is here and he’s ready to shock the world this weekend.

Louisville will host a huge game against no. 12 ranked Tennessee this Saturday at Noon (ET).