I am focusing almost all my attention towards the football coaching situation, so I will not do a typical, full recap. With all the excitement and intrigue surrounding the Louisville football coaching search, I am really unaffected by the Louisville loss to UNLV today. The Cards played their first true road game and did not play very well, but UNLV had something to do with that. Louisville was pushed around by UNLV and did not establish enough of a low post game to keep UNLV’s aggressive defense honest.

The Cards fell behind early, but pulled even at 20-20 mid-way through the first half. UNLV then went on a 20-10 run to end the first half and take a 40-30 halftime lead. As the teams came out for the second half, one team played with fire and the other seemed to be sleepwalking. Unfortunately, the sleepwalking team was Louisville.

UNLV came out on fire. They moved the ball very well and knocked down open shots. In a matter of only a few minutes, Louisville was down by 19. However, the Cards finally woke up and decided to put up a fight. They finally got aggressive on offense and defense, and started to cut into the lead of the Runnin’ Rebels.

The Cards drove to the basket and drew fouls. They whipped the ball around the perimeter for open shots and Louisville’s post players passed effectively to create open shots. Louisville eventually pulled even at 64-64. Ultimately, the Cards could not keep up their strong play and eventually fell to UNLV 76-71. The Cards now sit at 4-1 on the year and will return home to welcome the Stetson Hatters Wednesday at the Hall of Freedom. And yes, Stetson’s mascot is a hatter.

I thought Edgar Sosa was fantastic today. Sosa had 18 points, but hit big shots and made some great passes late in the game as Louisville was making their run. Freshman Rakeem Buckles was sensational as well. Bucktown logged 21 minutes and in that span, he produced 10 points and 11 rebounds. But it was his physical play that stood out to me. Bucktown was not afraid to bang down low and grabbed some tough rebounds during Louisville’s surge to tie the game.

On the negative side, Jerry Smith continued to look poor. Jerry missed free throws, played freshman level defense I thought, and continues to drive into the lane without purpose. My favorite play from Jerry occurred in the first half when he got the ball in transition and literally ran right over an UNLV defender in the post who was in position to take the charge since Jerry crossed the half-court line.

Jared Swopshire also had a poor game in my opinion. Swop had only 2 points and a single rebound, did not play physical, and consistently was bullied by UNLV. Swop will have bad games, he’s only a sophomore, but he cannot play this poorly.

I also thought Samardo Samuels disappointed greatly. Sam Sam finished with 13 points, but only had 3 rebounds. 3!!!!! In 29 minutes of play, Sam Sam was only able to grab 3 rebounds. If that type of play continues, then it’s a good news/bad news situation. The good news is he will be at Louisville for 4 years, but the bad news will be he won’t be that great of a player since there’s very little need for a 6-9 post player who cannot rebound.

All in all, not a good game from the Cards, but they will learn from this and improve. The Cards played in a close game and their younger players gained experience playing in a hostile environment. These types of games can serve teams well later in the season and hopefully, that will be the case for the Cards.