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That's Louisville's combined margin of victory in their last four games against us. Let that sink in.
I thought there was a possibility this would happen today, but it doesn't make it any less discouraging when it actually does. Generally I'll write a thorough recap after games like today, but there is just no point in doing that when the margin was so lopsided. This team, and this program, just got completely embarrassed in front of a national audience. Ollie has done a great job with this team, but my God, he's just gotten completely destroyed in all three of his match-ups with Pitino.
This team is just faster, stronger, and deeper than us, and it's been that way for three years now. I don't really know what to say, except that this program is way above a performance like that. I don't want to hear about how Louisville is a bad match-up. We all knew that going in. It doesn't excuse a showing that disastrous. Granted, Louisville might be the best team in the country, and we just so happened to draw them at home on senior day. It was the worst possible scenario. But jeez, that was dis-heartening. It's one thing to get outplayed, it's another to display no semblance of composure at any point during the game. For all the talk about how good Napier is - and he is really good - it's tough for me to consider him the best point guard in the country when he's engineering a sub-100 offense. That might be unfair, I don't know. But if there is one black mark on his resume, it's that, aside from our last meeting against them, he's gotten destroyed every time against Smith and Siva.
Where does this team go from here? Well, we played ourselves right into the 4/5 match-up in Memphis we were all hoping to avoid. We'll probably be 4-5 point dogs, and we're going to have to play a hell of a game to beat them for the third straight time.
One last thought: it's nice when Nolan and Brimah are able to show flashes of competence against the Central Florida's of the world, but this game just demonstrates how far away we are from having a championship type front court. Nolan, Brimah, and Olander played 35 minutes and grabbed four rebounds between them, committing twelve fouls in the process. When you're committing four fouls for every rebound, that means one thing: you're over-matched. Nolan and Olander are just limited athletically and Brimah is still learning how to play the game. When the guards play terribly, this is what happens.
I thought there was a possibility this would happen today, but it doesn't make it any less discouraging when it actually does. Generally I'll write a thorough recap after games like today, but there is just no point in doing that when the margin was so lopsided. This team, and this program, just got completely embarrassed in front of a national audience. Ollie has done a great job with this team, but my God, he's just gotten completely destroyed in all three of his match-ups with Pitino.
This team is just faster, stronger, and deeper than us, and it's been that way for three years now. I don't really know what to say, except that this program is way above a performance like that. I don't want to hear about how Louisville is a bad match-up. We all knew that going in. It doesn't excuse a showing that disastrous. Granted, Louisville might be the best team in the country, and we just so happened to draw them at home on senior day. It was the worst possible scenario. But jeez, that was dis-heartening. It's one thing to get outplayed, it's another to display no semblance of composure at any point during the game. For all the talk about how good Napier is - and he is really good - it's tough for me to consider him the best point guard in the country when he's engineering a sub-100 offense. That might be unfair, I don't know. But if there is one black mark on his resume, it's that, aside from our last meeting against them, he's gotten destroyed every time against Smith and Siva.
Where does this team go from here? Well, we played ourselves right into the 4/5 match-up in Memphis we were all hoping to avoid. We'll probably be 4-5 point dogs, and we're going to have to play a hell of a game to beat them for the third straight time.
One last thought: it's nice when Nolan and Brimah are able to show flashes of competence against the Central Florida's of the world, but this game just demonstrates how far away we are from having a championship type front court. Nolan, Brimah, and Olander played 35 minutes and grabbed four rebounds between them, committing twelve fouls in the process. When you're committing four fouls for every rebound, that means one thing: you're over-matched. Nolan and Olander are just limited athletically and Brimah is still learning how to play the game. When the guards play terribly, this is what happens.
