Syracuse 69 Louisville 49

[hrcarrier]

Final.

[tcjkbt]

Louisville's worst shooting percentage since December, 2014, per ESPN crawl........25.9%. I can't name one UL player who played well.

[hrcarrier]

They definitely looked bad tonight, things have really spiraled since playing Florida State.

[sportsfan41]

Makes the Duke vs Syracuse game Saturday look all that more intriguing.

[ThrillVille Cardinal51]

Wheels haven’t fallen off, but they’re wobbly.

[TheDeuce]

Didn't get to see but a few minutes of this one, but it sure seems like the Duke game took a mental toll on them.

[Getslow]

Didn't get to see but a few minutes of this one, but it sure seems like the Duke game took a mental toll on them.

 

It's been building for even longer than that. The Florida State game was a complete meltdown and UNC blew the doors off this team the week before.

 

I've never had a great head for the ins and outs of basketball, but watching a Louisville team be completely flummoxed by Syracuse has been something new the last two years after watching Pitino eat Boeheim's lunch for a decade.

 

It may be a personnel thing (trying to see this particular game optimistically), as none of the players Mack tried to put in the middle of the zone seemed to have any clue what to do in there. Sutton looked like a little kid playing right field that didn't want the ball to get hit to him every time he stood alone in there. Nwora wasn't much better. Without a guy to run things from that spot, beating Syracuse can be a tall order.

 

The plan seemed like it was there. The execution seemed awful.

[Pura Vida]

Glad I spent the evening watching high school hoops. Hope the Cards get it together soon, lol.

 

Skipped the game recording and went straight to Survivor!

[jpa2825]

They had a plan and worked it early. Decent to good shots were missed.

 

During this period, they were playing aggressive and solid defense as well, so score remained close to the under 12:00.

 

From there, Syracuse defense forced some bad shots (forced errors) AND UofL voluntarily took some poor shots (unforced errors), particularly McMahon and Perry. Naturally, these shots didn't fall.

 

In the interim, UofL defensive pressure waned and Syracuse shooters heated up (both were contributing factors). Syracuse pulled away and weren't really challenged for remainder of game, save 1 little spurt that got lead down to single digits.

 

@Getslow is absolutely right. If you can't pass high / low from the free throw line OR consistently make that jumper they will give you, there is little chance of beating Boeheim's 2-3 zone. I would have expected Sutton and Nwora both to handle that pass and shot well. For cripes sake, Mathiang, Onuaku, Johnson and many others have handled it. They didn't.

 

Sandwich any sort of solid effort @BC and @ND around the 2 losses to UVa (considering not even watching these 2 games to keep my cardiologist happy) and we roll the dice in the ACC Tourney and see what happens. Expect to win or play poorly at either gym, and @UNC will have been the high point of the season and everything else is downhill.