The Louisville Cardinals begin their first season in the Atlantic Coast Conference after playing last season in the American Athletic Conference. Everyone’s waiting to see how this team will hold up when paired with the likes of Duke, North Carolina, and familiar Big East for Syracuse.
What Went Wrong Last Season?
The Cardinals had some definite issues. They worked through them fairly well, but were undone by them in the end. The big problem Louisville had was that it didn’t have reliable pure shooters.
Louisville was able to play great defense at times, but it went through long stretches in games when it didn’t score. Louisville’s season-long three-point percentage was 36.8, which is actually very solid, but what that number doesn’t say is that Louisville went on big streaks both positive and negative.
The Cardinals withered down the stretch at home against Cincinnati, but Russ Smith was unconscious in a road game at SMU. Chris Jones was a baffling, frustrating player for the Cardinals through much of January. But then in February, he became a real asset and continued his strong play into March.
The Cardinals were a schizophrenic team in 2013-14, following their national title run the year before. They were a poor offensive team through most of January. In February, they picked up the pace and found their identity on defense as well. In March, their defensive sharpness returned, but their perimeter shooting really fell off in the NCAA tournament.
The Cardinals were roaring into the NCAAs. They dominated the American Athletic Conference Tournament and were starting to resemble that championship team.
The Cardinals destroyed Connecticut, the eventual national champion, in the title game of the American Athletic Conference Tournament and served notice that they were ready to defend their national title. A lot of experts felt that even though Louisville was seeded fourth in the Midwest Region, it could have been seeded as high as second and looked like a favorite to advance out of that particular region and go to the Final Four. However, Louisville never found a shooting touch in March Madness.
The Cardinals were almost upset by Manhattan in a long, ugly, plodding first game, in which they came from behind late in the second half to survive.
Louisville then played what was quite possibly the ugliest game of the whole tournament by any two teams, a slugfest against Saint Louis in its second game of the tournament. What won the game for the Cardinals was their perimeter defense. Saint Louis finished 0-for-15 from three-point range. Defense got the Cardinals through.
However, when Louisville went cold in the final five minutes of its Sweet 16 game against Kentucky, the Cardinals’ defense wasn’t able to shut down Kentucky’s Julius Randle and the rest of the Wildcats’ big men. Louisville’s season ended short of the Final Four.
Offseason Changes
The Cardinals had to say goodbye to wing shooter Luke Hancock, a veteran who steadied the team in March and hit big buckets. Louisville also lost Russ Smith, one of the great players in the history of the program, as the versatile guard did so much to hold the team together. The Cardinals face a big challenge in trying to replace those two guys.
Projected Finish
The Cardinals should be good enough to finish in the top five of the ACC, but that’s probably going to be closer to fourth than first. The ACC is probably going to be too tough a league for Louisville to master in one season.
Pick: Fourth In ACC, Round Of 32 In NCAA Tournament
