Villanova 73 – Louisville 64: Cards Drop Two In A Row

I didn’t expect Louisville to run the table in Big East play this season, but I certainly didn’t expect to see them play like they did tonight.  It’s still January and the Cards have only three losses on the season, but what we saw tonight is slightly concerning. A week ago I was asking if this team had any real weaknesses. That question was answered tonight. Mental toughness and winning close games looks to be a problem.

It’s still too early to go jumping off of the deep end, but Villanova isn’t very good. They’re not very good at all. I’m not quite sure what the answer is, but hopefully Coach Pitino does.

For the first time this season, Russ Smith wasn’t Russ Smith. Tonight was clearly his worst performance of the season. Is it fair to see this team will go as Russ goes? He finished just 2-of-13 from the floor.

Peyton Siva played well finishing with 15 points and 11 assists. Wayne Blackshear was also a bright spot. He finished with 17 points and 4 steals. Other than that, there isn’t much else to be complementary of.

The poor free throw shooting led to the eventual melt down. The Cards were 12-of-24 from the charity stripe, but missed eight of their last ten. Chane Behanan had one of his worst performances of the season and wasn’t much of a factor at all. Gorgui Dieng made some plays here and there, but overall he struggled with Nova’s physical play.

This’ll be a game that hopefully the team can quickly put behind them. The Cards are in the toughest part of their schedule and unfortunately Nova was considered to be one of the easier games.