Maui Invitational 7th Place Game: Louisville

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Queens_NYC

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Jan 8, 2017
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Wednesday, November 23rd, 2022
7:30 PM
Lahaina Civic Center
ESPNU

The Bearcats will receive one last opportunity to stop the bleeding from their current three-game losing streak before a week-long break when they face off against a winless Louisville (0-5) squad this evening.

After starting their season with back-to-back-to-back one-point losses at home to Bellarmine, Wright State, and Appalachian State, the Cardinals have since suffered consecutive blowout losses to ranked opponents (Arkansas and Texas Tech) in Maui.

During yesterday's 70-38 loss to Texas Tech, the Cardinals managed just 13 first half points and finished the game shooting 22.4% from the field as a team.

The Cardinals are led by first-year head coach Kenny Payne who played for Louisville under Denny Crum in the late 80s before embarking on a short NBA career. He became an assistant coach at Oregon in 2004 then spent a decade at Kentucky before joining the Knicks bench in 2020.
 
Louisville turns the ball over a ton. This is a game where we should be pressing aggressively. I'd like to see a lot of Phinisee at PG and Skillings at SG putting constant pressure on the ball.
 
Currently we have 6 rebounds, Louisville has 14. We're up by 2, but it doesn't bode well for the whole game. We need to have another quality rebounder in our starting line-up. Sit Nolley, Davenport or DDJ.
 
How can you justify playing JD at this point? He has always been pathetic on defense and now his offense matches his D. If I see him give up another rebound off a FT I'm going to lose my mind.

Reed and Skilling need to play as much as possible. Miller should be embarrassed.
 
Skillings should be playing 30 minutes at SG. He's not a 3. I'm going to lose my mind if I see another 6'6" wing posting up DDJ.
 
Not a lot about this game inspired confidence that we are a good team. It's a win, but more because of Louisville being totally inept than because we played well.

Our offense was mostly hero ball until midway through the second half when Louisville's defense went to pieces. DDJ's shot was just falling.

The scouting report for stopping our offense isn't that hard though. Don't let Nolley and Davenport (who are basically the same player) take open spot up threes. Guard DDJ with a bigger guard, cover him tight and dare him to drive. That's it at least until/unless Lakhin starts to really take over games. If he can force double teams and make the right decision out of them, we may actually be hard to stop at times.

It's also interesting to note that Wes shrunk the bench massively. Of the starters only Lakhin (foul trouble) played fewer than 29 minutes. Davenport (34 minutes) played the most minutes he ever has with Wes as the coach. Skillings, Rob and Ody were the only subs who played more than 4 minutes (and only Ody was above 13 minutes). I'm curious what the future will bring, is Wes going to bail on going deep in the bench and pressing? It might be the better choice with this team.

We've got a couple cupcakes to get ready for real games. Though Bryant may not be a sure win. Hopefully Wes Miller can make some major improvements in a short time.
 
skyblade said:
Not a lot about this game inspired confidence that we are a good team. It's a win, but more because of Louisville being totally inept than because we played well.

Our offense was mostly hero ball until midway through the second half when Louisville's defense went to pieces. DDJ's shot was just falling.

The scouting report for stopping our offense isn't that hard though. Don't let Nolley and Davenport (who are basically the same player) take open spot up threes. Guard DDJ with a bigger guard, cover him tight and dare him to drive. That's it at least until/unless Lakhin starts to really take over games. If he can force double teams and make the right decision out of them, we may actually be hard to stop at times.

It's also interesting to note that Wes shrunk the bench massively. Of the starters only Lakhin (foul trouble) played fewer than 29 minutes. Davenport (34 minutes) played the most minutes he ever has with Wes as the coach. Skillings, Rob and Ody were the only subs who played more than 4 minutes (and only Ody was above 13 minutes). I'm curious what the future will bring, is Wes going to bail on going deep in the bench and pressing? It might be the better choice with this team.

We've got a couple cupcakes to get ready for real games. Though Bryant may not be a sure win. Hopefully Wes Miller can make some major improvements in a short time.
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I don't know about all of this. Usually I agree with most of your takes. First of all DDJs shot is falling most of the time so that was not a fluke. Secondly I don't think JD and Nolley resemble each other much. Nolley is good at getting fouled with his pump fake, he's good in the post, and a better passer. He is not forcing up shots or taking as many dumb shots. The shrinking of the bench? Kalu is the worst out of 10 guys getting minutes so you have to shrink him out. As for Reed not sure what is going on but he didn't play last game either suggesting there could be a minor injury and we are back to looking at red shirt. So down to a 9 man rotation possibly and the press isn't working so maybe a blessing in disguise.
 
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