Louisville vs. Virginia recap: 3 things we learned
By Chris Stone
A top 15 matchup between Virginia and Louisville taught us a few things.
It wasn’t easy, but the Virginia Cavaliers managed to hold off the Louisville Cardinals, 61-53, at the KFC Yum! Center on Wednesday night. The tilt between ACC foes with the two best defenses in the country was revealing about the Final Four potential of both squads.
1. Virginia’s first half defense was enough to hold off Louisville
It’s easy to focus on what happens down the stretch in a big game, but sometimes the most important events happen much earlier in the contest. For Virginia’s win on Wednesday, that means focusing on the Cavaliers’ dominant defensive performance in the first half that held Louisville to 0.70 points per possession.
Head coach Tony Bennett’s pack line defense is well-known, and over the first 20 minutes, we saw why. The Cardinals scored just 21 points in the half, a season low, while shooting 7-for-19 from the field. Louisville showed no penchant for attacking over the packed man-to-man defense, converting just 1-of-5 3-point attempts.
Even when the Cardinals were able to get in the lane, they struggled to make the correct decisions, turning it over 11 times. Virginia’s 15 point lead — built on the back of its defense — heading into the half proved enough to hold off Louisville’s run down the stretch.
2. The Cavaliers don’t need Austin Nichols to be Final Four good
Virginia lost a potential All-American after the program chose to dismiss Memphis transfer Austin Nichols after he played just one game this season. Luckily, it doesn’t seem like it’s mattered too much. The Cavaliers now have back-to-back road wins over KenPom top 50 opponents and their win at Louisville should put the ACC on notice.
Duke still figures to be the conference’s prohibitive favorite, but it won’t be easy with Virginia’s ability to grind the pace of a game to a halt and play top-tier defense.
3. Louisville’s defense is great, but the Cardinals need to find more scoring
Louisville’s offensive struggles were on display late as Donovan Mitchell airballed a 3-pointer with 37.9 seconds remaining and missed another long just 10 seconds later. The Cardinals are making just 33.5 percent of their triples this season and have struggled to score with consistency.
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There’s no doubt that Virginia’s defense, which forces plenty of outside shots, is a bad matchup for Louisville, but the Cardinals’ inability to score could come back to haunt them in March no matter how good their defense is.