This afternoon in Morgantown, against a West Virginia squad that out-muscled our team for most of the day, the Cards battled, hustled, and clawed their way to victory in the game's final minutes. Down by as many as double digits in the second half, Louisville came back and took the lead on the strength of full-court pressure, clutch play from our senior leaders, and the long-awaited debut of hyped freshman Wayne Blackshear -- who did not disappoint.
More on Wayne in a minute. For Louisville, the win is valuable in multiple respects: its sixth victory in a row, a resonating performance to send us into Monday's matchup against Syracuse, a rare road win at the West Virginia Coliseum, and a rousing ending to Louisville's awful-in-a-good-way rivalry with the Mountaineers, at least as far as the Big East is concerned.
Most importantly in my view, Louisville found a way to win when not everything went right and it was forced out if its desired tempo. I thought Louisville played poorly in many respects for most of the game. The Cards let West Virginia's big men get to the line way too much, while ours hardly visited at all. Through much of the second half, we went back to "Russ offense." The Cards were outrebounded offensively, were outrebounded defensively, and had only 12 assists. Only in the game's last ten minutes were we able to mount an effective full-court pressure defense. Despite all these shortcomings, the Cards won. To me, these types of victories say more about a team's potential in March than dominant performances like what we saw against UConn. Today was smashmouth, today was gritty, today had controversial calls from the officials -- your typical afternoon in Morgantown in other words. At the end, we had put up more points than they did, somehow. Take that, Huggins! (Okay, okay... it's no doubt a byproduct of my good spirits when I say this, but I am genuinely going to miss facing that man.)
Louisville's senior leaders had flawed performances but should get their due. In the last minute, Louisville clung desperately to a one-point lead. West Virginia, out of timeouts, advanced the ball up court with less than 15 seconds to play. But Kyle Kuric intercepted a Mountaineer pass, was fouled, and hit both free throws, just enough to seal the victory. And of course Kyle tied the game a few minutes earlier with that crucial three from his corner. Kyle finished with 17 points in only 25 minutes of play, though Doris Burke hypothesized that he was kept on the bench for failing to fill out the stat sheet. Likewise, Chris Smith hit two big free throws to put Louisville up 75-71 with 1:19 to go. He finished with 13 points -- but he, too, failed to notch many rebounds, steals, or assists. In the next week, both will concentrate on expanding those areas of their game.
Russ Smith was sensational, finishing with 16 points. He kept the Cards alive for a long stretch when they couldn't find any other way to score. But "Russ Offense" is never a good sign for how the Cards are playing as a whole. The Cards have to do a better job of running their half court sets through their post players.
Russ Smith was sensational, finishing with 16 points. He kept the Cards alive for a long stretch when they couldn't find any other way to score. But "Russ Offense" is never a good sign for how the Cards are playing as a whole. The Cards have to do a better job of running their half court sets through their post players.
And somewhere between the 12 and 13-minute marks of the first half, Wayne Blackshear entered the game.
The Blackshear Era at the University of Louisville has now begun, and for the first time Cards fans saw what all the fuss was about. The ESPN announcers somehow missed his debut, but twitter blew up when alert Cards fan saw "Fat Wayne" waiting at the scorer's table. Notwithstanding ESPN's miss, Blackshear did his own job of announcing his arrival -- in his first minute of play, he grabbed a defensive rebound, blocked a shot in transition, and then hit a three.
Blackshear was absolutely crucial to Louisville's run that finally secured the lead. With 4:37 to go, Wayne darted to the rim, scooped up a slightly difficult Chane Behanan pass, took a short dribble to rebalance his body, and laid in the ball to close the deficit to 5. Moments later, Blackshear came up with a defensive rebound and, from halfcourt, lobbed it to Kuric in his corner for the 3 that tied the game. The next play, Wayne stole the ball, leading to a Russ Smith layup to take the lead.
What impressed me most about Blackshear was the obvious touch and feel for the game, the stuff you can't teach -- in a split moment's decision, he knew to take that extra dribble for the layup, to make that soft lob to Kuric. It comes naturally to this kid, and it should not be lost on anyone that the plays on which the game turned all circulated through him. He's a difference-maker, and he's going to be something special.
As crucial as Blackshear was down the stretch, this game proved the absolute essentialness of Chane Behanan; as Chane goes, so does this entire Louisville team. For the first 30 minutes, Chane was a non-factor. He missed a few short-range shots, as he has been prone to do this year, and allowed bearded mountain man Deniz Kilicli to dominate on both ends down low. Louisville did him no favors by failing to involve him significantly in its halfcourt offensive sets. At the half, Chane had only 2 points and 3 rebounds, and I thought that statistic was as telling as any as to why we might lose. But Chane would come to life late in the second half, finally gobbling up those rebounds and battling Kilicli, who fouled out (and should have been T-ed up again), to a draw. When Chane became a factor, I thought the difference was palpable. It also allowed Gorgui the freedom to alter shots and avoid drawing his fifth foul. Chane finished with only 4 points and 6 rebounds, but three of those rebounds came in the game's final eight minutes.
Stats here.
I don't think that many watching today would say that Louisville was headed for victory. That the Cards found a way to win nevertheless is as encouraging a sign for our eventual March fortunes as any this team has provided all year. Not to be lost in all this, it feels real good to finally pull out that elusive victory against arch-rival West Virginia in their own battery-chucking house. Real good.
Anticipation for the Syracuse game is now epic. These Cards didn't play terrific today, but the toughness they demonstrated to the very end, as well as the successful debut of our freshman phenom, warrants the excitement that should follow. Back to Louisville, enjoy the victory, prepare for war. Go Cards.
