What’s up with Louisville basketball’s sudden struggles?
Monday thoughts:
While Kentucky is surging, having won its eight of its last nine, that team down I-64, the one certain to drop out of the AP’s top 10 on Monday, is struggling.
Louisville lost a pair of games last week, both on the road, both to mediocre teams. The Cats fell 64-58 at Georgia Tech last Wednesday. Then on Saturday, they managed all of 14 points on the way to a 77-62 loss at Clemson. With five games to go, Chris Mack’s team is 21-5 overall and 12-3 in the ACC, a half-game behind Duke in the conference standings.
What’s gone wrong? Given that the Cards are ranked No. 11 in offensive efficiency, it sounds crazy to point to that end of floor as Louisville’s problem. On the other hand, the Cardinals have failed to score 60 points in either of their last two games. They were 5-for-32 from the floor in the first half at Clemson and ended up shooting 34.8 percent for the game. They shot 22.2 percent from three-point range, making just six of 27 shots.
Then there’s the mystery of Jordan Nwora. A contender for ACC Player of the Year honors, Nwora was just 1-for-5 from the floor and scored all of two points in the loss at Georgia Tech. He was replaced by Samuell Williamson in the starting lineup at Clemson and responded by going for 1-of-5 from the floor again. He didn’t score until making a free throw with 3:29 left. Final line: Five points in 29 minutes.
Wrote Eric Crawford for WDRB: “know enough about college players to know this — you never know what’s going on with them. Nwora’s lack of focus at Georgia Tech was evident. He wasn’t in a defensive stance. He allowed people to go by him and completely missed on a back-door cut that led to a layup in the opening minutes.
“Nwora is a really good kid who has had some tough games, and who no doubt will turn it back on at some point.”
The sooner, the better. The Cards return home to face Syracuse on Wednesday and North Carolina on Saturday. Next Monday is the big one, a rematch with Florida State in Tallahassee. Leonard Hamilton’s Seminoles whipped U of L 78-65 at the Yum Center back on Jan. 4.
ACC standings leaders
- Duke 12-2
- Louisville 12-3
- Florida State 11-3
- Virginia 9-5
The guess here is that this just one of those hard-to-avoid slumps even good teams experience in a long, long season. We’re at that point where it’s not yet the postseason but you can see it from here. You need that motivation to push through, and those who watch the Cards on a regular basis have pointed to an obvious lack of energy. Betting here they get back on track.
In other news:
▪ Kentucky women’s basketball team bounced back from its loss at Arkansas last week to knock off No. 6 Mississippi State 73-62 at Memorial Coliseum on Sunday. Playing with a brace on her left hand to protect a broken pinkie, Rhyne Howard scored 26 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. Josh Sullivan of the Herald-Leader has all the details.
SEC women’s standings leaders:
- South Carolina 11-0
- Mississippi State 10-2
- Arkansas 8-4
- Texas A&M 8-4
- Kentucky 8-4
- LSU 8-4
▪ It was a rough opening weekend for the UK baseball team. The Wildcats were swept by TCU in Forth Worth, losing 5-1 on Friday, 7-1 on Saturday and 10-5 on Sunday. Our friend Derek Terry of the Cats Pause, a close follower of all things baseball, tweeted, “Not a pretty opening weekend for UK baseball. Simply put, this team has a long way to go before it’s even competitive against an SEC schedule. Not too many good things in any phase of the game this weekend.”
The Wildcats play their home opener on Tuesday against Southeast Missouri State at Kentucky Proud Park. First pitch is 4 p.m.
▪ On the other hand, Kentucky softball is off to a fast start. Rachel Lawson’s club improved to 7-2 with a 15-3 win over Detroit Mercy on Sunday in Arizona. The Wildcats are at Middle Tennessee on Wednesday before heading to Birmingham for five games next weekend, starting with Georgia Tech and Samford on Friday.
▪ For my Monday column, I wrote about how UK men’s basketball has fought its way to the top of the SEC standings. Now the Cats have to finish the job, which won’t be easy considering the remaining schedule includes road games at LSU, Texas A&M and Florida, as well as home games against Florida, Tennessee and Auburn.
This story was originally published February 17, 2020 at 9:50 AM.
