The Pat Kelsey era is now underway with a home exhibition dominating win over Young Harris. Louisville basketball fans are like sleeping giants as they patiently await this team’s rise to the top.
The last two years haven’t been kind to the Cardinals to say the least, as Kenny Payne’s failures still loom over the program, but Kelsey has his guys playing much better than Payne did in the last two years. Louisville lost an exhibition game to a Division II team in Lenoir Rhyne and followed that up with an exhibition loss to Kentucky Wesleyan the next year, so even these lopsided matchups weren’t easy for Louisville recently.
Fortunately, all of that is about to change, because this team is light years better than the teams we saw for the past two seasons. That isn’t a knock on any former Cardinals, but a knock on the scheme and organization of that group. The difference between organization and disorganization was on full display in Louisville’s first exhibition game as they mopped the floor with Young Harris by 47 points (106-59).
Takeaways and game recap:
The biggest takeaway from this game was Louisville’s offensive firepower, which will be the strong suit of Kelsey’s first year at the helm. The offensive attack is simple and quite effective, move the ball around for an open three, or drive to the basket for a high percentage shot at the rim. This modernized style reminded me a lot of Alabama’s offense with Nate Oats, who’s coming off his first Final Four appearance.
Every team in the country can’t run an offense like that, because you’d need basically your entire team to be able to shoot from three and that’s exactly what Louisville has this year. Multiple lineups that can all shoot from deep will pay dividends for the Cardinals this year. Every game we’ve seen from them so far has resulted in the offense looking like a well-oiled machine with interchangeable parts. Points, points, points, will be the mantra of this team.
On the other side of the ball is where Louisville is underrated I believe, because even the smaller guys like Chucky Hepburn get after it on the defensive end. His constant on ball pressure against opposing guards will be a problem for them and it’ll result in multiple steals. The rest of the lineup consists of athletic wings who can hold their own on the perimeter and inside the paint to an extent. The only player this team will most likely have problems defending against is a big and burly center who can play back to the basket, which is because all of Louisville’s centers are tall with skinny frames.
I loved everything I saw on offense and this team has the ability to put up points in bunches. The personnel that Kelsey has put together, although early, looks like the perfect combination for his playing style and the rest of the country will catch on sooner or later. 26 of Louisville’s 30 field goal attempts to start the game were three pointers, but the Cardinals went up by double digits quickly. The takeaways that matter the most are Louisville got significantly better on offense and defense, which is all we can ask for at the moment.
Louisville isn’t “back” yet, but the Cardinals will be a tough matchup for any team they run into this season and I believe they’ll show their ability rather quickly.
Louisville will be back in action for another exhibition matchup later today against Spalding at 7:00 P.M. (ET).
