The Cardinals were coming off a nice outing at home in their last game against Georgia Tech, which resulted in them getting back into the win column after a strong performance from freshman forward Kaleb Glenn. He finished with 15 points and 13 rebounds (nine offensive) en route to a double digit win.

Trying to build off that, Louisville traveled to Chestnut Hill yesterday as they tried to steal another game on the road in the ACC, but they couldn't execute in the second half and Boston College's surge proved to be too much for the Cardinals to handle. This game was absolutely winnable for Louisville, but they'd had trouble all season when it comes to stopping the bleeding and that was their problem in this one as well. Coaching is the most deciding factor in terms of having answers to a run that you're opponent goes on, because the adjustments that you make are supposed to make them change their plan of attack if you can execute and Louisville failed to do so. That's the difference between great teams and teams that struggle on a game to game basis.

The first half was a promising one for Kenny Payne and his team, but the game was essentially over when Boston College adjusted to their game plan, because Louisville had no answer and the second half point totals showed that.

Skyy Clark suffered a broken rib in his last outing against Georgia Tech, so he'll miss some time as he recovers from that injury. His injury means that Ty-Laur Johnson will get the point guard reigns for the foreseeable future and he'll have a lot on his plate being that he's the last natural guard on the team as of now. Johnson, who's more of a pure point guard than Clark, has been really effective in spurts and he was extremely effective in the first half of play yesterday. As undersized as he is, he has a knack for getting downhill just about anytime he wants to, which allows him to penetrate the paint and get quality looks at the rim. He also uses that ability to draw other defenders in, setting up his teammates for easy looks around the rim or open looks behind the three-point arc. Johnson scored eight points and added six assists in the first 20 minutes of action, as the Eagles were having a hard time keeping him outside the paint. Mike James, Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, and Tre White also had impressive halves with each of them in double figures to get Louisville to 47 points. Boston College had 39 points themselves, but we all know that's to be expected with the lack of defense the Cardinals have shown all season. All in all, it was a solid first half performance from Louisville, whose offense looked like a well oil machine with Johnson running the show.

The second half, however, was a complete 180 from what Louisville showed in the first half, because the Eagles adjusted to what Kenny Payne wanted to do. The entire game plan was to let Johnson set everything up one-on-one off the dribble or with a ball screen from either one of his teammates. Boston College figured that out and starting doubling Johnson, forcing him to give the ball up and make someone else create some offense, but Louisville only has one guard available to that as stated above. From that point on, it was a struggle for the Cardinals to score and the coaching staff couldn't draw anything up that was effective enough to score the ball consistently. Louisville went from scoring the ball fairly easy, to not being able to buy a basket for key stretches in the game. On top of that, the Eagles didn't have to change their plan of attack of offense, because they were also scoring pretty easily, just not as much as Louisville. Their defense was already poor in the first half, but it got progressively worse when they couldn't score as much as they were. Louisville's players play like scoring and defending go hand in hand, because once the offense starts to look worse, so does their energy and intensity on the defensive end.

Louisville went from being up by nearly ten in the first period, to getting outscored by 20 points in the second and that opened up a double-digit deficit for the Cardinals that they didn't have the answers and personnel to overcome. It's not that hard to stop an offense when you only have one capable point guard available in the game, which is inexcusable for a program of Louisville's caliber, but a lot has changed in the last decade for this once historic program. This season might've tallied more wins than a year ago, but the product on the court almost feels just as bad, because there's more talent on the team this season. These glaring issues that Louisville has faced over the past two seasons will be fixed one way or another as the end of the season approaches. The only question is will they keep the same coaching staff or clean house once again to try to get back to their glory days?

Louisville's next matchup will come this Saturday on the road against a solid Pitt team at 6:30 P.M. (ET).