I have to say, if there is any one thing that has made me nervous about the Louisville basketball team so far this year, it's been the offensive play. Man, did that finally get exposed this past week when we couldn't buy a bucket at the end against Georgetown and against Kentucky.

I know Pitino's squads have been relatively balanced in scoring in recent seasons - but man do we need a reliable 20 a night guy right now, especially since we really aren't hitting from distance. I long for the days of Reece Gaines and DeJuan Wheat right now.

Luckily we've got a Big East schedule on the lighter side to start - St. John's, Notre Dame, Providence, and DePaul coming up ought to give us a chance to play with some rotations and try to get things clicking again before diving headlong into the heart of the conference schedule.

Ideally, who does everybody peg as the starting five going forward? Obviously I think Russ Smith becomes a staple there as our most consistent scorer right now, along with Kyle Kuric and Gorgui Dieng. But I don't know who the other two are...because I have to say, while I love what Peyton Siva can do, I'm not against him seeing a little more bench right now. I hate to see our best point sitting, but I just don't know where his head is sometimes. At the end of last season in conference play, I was blown away by his ability to take over driving in and winning games for us. This year, it just feels a LOT like watching Edgar Sosa...

I guess I've been nervous all season, not panicked by any stretch of the imagination, but nervous. At this point, you'd hope to have seen this team really gel more, especially considering the rather battle-tested nature of the squad with so many hard fought close wins; but if the rushed shots and bad decisions during this two game losing streak are any indiciation, it feels like we are regressing a bit...

Here's to a better start to 2012 than the end of 2011.

On a side note, I do write some about Cardinal sports on Examiner.com. Check out my page sometime!