Cards Cruise Past Hatters 80-48

The University of Louisville Men’s Basketball team had something to prove last night.  Coming off a disappointing showing in Vegas in which they dropped a game to UNLV this past weekend, the Cards came into their game against Stetson hungry for a decisive victory.  That’s exactly what they got.

To Stetson’s credit, they hung with the Cards early in the first half.  With 12 minutes left before the break, Louisville only led by three at 13-10.  Then the Cardinals kicked it into another gear.  Louisville used 9-0 run to push their lead out to 14 points at the seven minute market and cruised to the break up by 16. 

The second half was dominated by the Cards.  Stetson made a small run early in the half to cut the deficit to 12, but that was as close as they would get the rest of the way.  The Senior leadership of Jerry Smith and Edgar Sosa, along with the beast in the middle Samardo Samuels, led a fury of Cardinal points that made the game turn ugly.  The Cards were without starting guard Preston Knowles and star Freshman Peyton Siva who both sat out with injuries. Smith, Sosa, and Samuels needed big games to pick up the slack and they came through.   When it was all said and done, 10 Cardinals were had scored and Louisville was victorious 80-48.

Smith came into this game with a little extra to prove.  The Senior guard was coming off of his worst performance of the season in Vegas and he knew it.  In fact, upon arrival back in the Ville from their trip out west, Smith went straight to the practice gym to shoot 500 shots.  The extra work paid off.  Smith was the Cardinals leading scorer last night with 17 points on 6-8 shooting.  He also helped the Cards with five rebounds and three assists. 

The other two Cardinals in double figures were the guys you would expect.  Edgar Sosa poured in 15 points on 6-9 shooting, including a perfect 3-3 from behind the arc.  Sosa also finished with four rebounds, five assists, and five turnovers.  The five turnovers is uncharacteristic of Sosa so far this season as he has done an excellent job protecting the ball.  Hopefully last night was just a one game lapse.

Samuels, like Sosa, also dropped 15 points on the Hatters.  Samuels shot 50% on 6-12 from the field and led the team with seven rebounds.  He did not record a block, assist, steal, or turnover. 

Stetson was led in scoring by guard A.J. Smith who finished with 18 points on 6-14 shooting, including 4-9 from three.  Ridge Graham also finished in double figures with 13.   

As a team, the Cardinals had to much talent and athleticism for the Hatters. Louisville shot a blazing 61% from the field on 29-47.  Stetson, who was forced into some tough shots all night by the Louisville pressure defense, ended up shooting just 35% on 17-48.  The Cards also connected on 50% from deep (7-14) compared to Stetson who hit 33% (7-21) from behind the arc. 

The Cards dominated the Hatterson the glass, holding a 34-21 rebound advantage.  They also had 16 assists compared to just eight by Stetson. Louisville was also able to block four of the Hatters shots and create 18 turnovers.

To Stetson’s credit, they played extremely hard.  For such an under matched team, they played with tremendous energy and heart. Stetson forced Louisville into some sloppy offensive play at times, forcing the Cards to commit 16 turnovers.  The Hatters also ended up with 10 steals compared to Louisville’s five.  This Stetson group was a scrappy one, and would not just roll over and die.  I think they showed the Cards that work still needs to be done. 

Some Final Thoughts

1) The main thing that stuck out to me was the lack of stopping guard penetration.   Stetsons guards were able to penetrate the lane whenever they wanted and got some easy shots inside.  This was especially true during the first half.  The Cardinals are coming off a game against UNLV in which the Runnin’ Rebels did exactly the same thing and ended up beating the Cards.  Last night, the Stetson guards would slip into the paint at ease and no Cardinals would step up to defend them.  Once the guards were able to get into the lane, Samuels needs to slide over and stop them.  Instead, Samuels was a step too slow, and Stetson was scoring some quick and easy buckets.  This lack of stopping penetration is by far the Cards biggest weakness.

2) The press was very effective.  The Cardinal defense really got after the Stetson ball handlers in the back court.  The hard nosed press forced Stetson into numerous turnovers from bad passes, steals, and a 10-second violation.  The press led to some easy fast break points and helped Louisville push their lead out.  The press also wore down the Stetson players physically,  allowing Louisville to put the game  away in the second half. 

3) The Cardinals should of gone inside a little more.  I still believe that Samardo Samuels should be the first option on this team.  The kid is a beast on the inside when he wants to be.  At times he can be soft, as was seen last night, but he has improved dramatically from last year in finishing around the rim.  Get the ball to the big man for some easy buckets inside.  This will open up jump shots for Smith, Sosa, Knowles, Delk, and other three-point shooters.  Louisville is getting into the habit of looking for jump shots and trey balls first which is resulting in some bad shots and wasted opportunities.  Feed the Beast!

4) Louisville did a really poor job of protecting the basketball last night.  The offense looked really sloppy committing 16 turnovers.  There is no excuse to turn the ball over that much against a team like Stetson.  The guards, especially Sosa, need to do a better job of running the offense and getting things organized.  Also, everyone on the team needs to be stronger with the ball.  On several occasions, Stetson players would slap and knock the ball lose, or just take it away from a Cardinal player.  If the Cards turn it over this much against Stetson, it’s going to be an extremely tough time in the Big East unless things get fixed.

5) Great job last night by Jerry Smith.  As I mentioned, he was coming off a very poor showing in Vegas and had something to prove.  He didn’t force his shots and even took it strong to the hole a few times.  He took open shots, within the flow of the offense, and the result was a season high 17 points.  Hopefully this will be a spring board to get Jerry out of his slump.  The Cards need performances like this from him in order to be successful. 

6)  It was good to get the end of the bench some minutes.  Last night, guys like George Goode, Chris Brickley, and Stephan Van Treese saw some minutes and took full advantage of their opportunity.  Brickley hit his only shot of the game, a three ball, and finished with three points. 

Goode came into the game and beasted somebody with a blocked shot. 

Van Treese really went nuts in his five minutes of action.  He started off with a blocked shot followed by a sweet dish for an easy Mike Marra bucket.  Then  Van Treese decided to put some points on the board.  He had layup for the first two points of his college career and then decided to cram on somebody.  That’s right, highlight of the night comes from Stephan Van Treese as he posterized a Stetson defender by throwing one down on top of them.  The final stat line for Van Treese read, four points, one assist, one block, one turnover, and one foul in five minutes of action. 

Up Next

The Cardinal’s next test will come Saturday afternoon against former Conference USA rival Charlotte 49ers.  Tip time is set for 7:00 pm EST at world famous Freedom Hall.