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I'll be perfectly honest: after a near-perfect performance against Cornell their last time out, I expected Louisville to be a step or two off tonight. Not "trailing at halftime" off, but just off enough that we would all adopt a "still plenty of things to work on" mentality in the days between now and Saturday.
It's safe to say that performance did not come on Tuesday, as U of L was once again dominant, this time racing out to an 8-0 advantage in the opening two minutes and then steadily building on that lead for the next 38. Montrezl Harrell led all scorers with 20 points, while Russ Smith (14), Chris Jones (11) and Chane Behanan (11) also hit double figures.
Forget the ridiculous margins of victory and all the other eye-popping statistics; I'm not sure I've ever seen a Louisville team play with this much intensity this early in the season. Last year's team was just as focused, but I'm not sure there was the same raw aggression during the first month of the season that we've seen with this group. Maybe that's the product of more bodies competing for minutes, or maybe it's just everyone feeding off of the energy of guys like Trez and Russ and SVT.
One thing is for certain, it's awfully fun to watch.
Hartford Hawks |
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STARTERS | MIN | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS | |||
Mark Nwakamma, F | 35 | 7-15 | 0-2 | 2-4 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 16 | |||
Oren Faulk, F | 9 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | |||
Corban Wroe, G | 30 | 0-2 | 0-2 | 0-0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 0 | |||
Yolonzo Moore II, G | 19 | 3-6 | 1-3 | 0-0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 7 | |||
Taylor Dyson, G | 13 | 0-3 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | |||
BENCH | MIN | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS | |||
Jamie Schneck, F | 8 | 1-1 | 0-0 | 0-2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | |||
Yasin Kolo, C | 27 | 3-6 | 1-3 | 5-7 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 12 | |||
Evan Cooper, G | 27 | 3-5 | 1-2 | 1-1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 8 | |||
Justin Graham, G | 16 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | |||
Wes Cole, G | 16 | 1-4 | 1-4 | 0-0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | |||
TOTALS | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS | ||||
18-43 | 4-17 | 8-14 | 8 | 21 | 29 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 25 | 21 | 48 | |||||
41.9% | 23.5% | 57.1% | ||||||||||||||
Louisville Cardinals | ||||||||||||||||
STARTERS | MIN | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS | |||
Stephan Van Treese, F | 20 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | |||
Montrezl Harrell, F | 26 | 9-12 | 0-0 | 2-4 | 4 | 5 | 9 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 20 | |||
Russ Smith, G | 25 | 6-14 | 2-6 | 0-0 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 14 | |||
Wayne Blackshear, G | 15 | 2-4 | 1-3 | 0-0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | |||
Chris Jones, G | 23 | 3-8 | 1-1 | 4-4 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 11 | |||
BENCH | MIN | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS | |||
Chane Behanan, F | 19 | 3-3 | 0-0 | 5-10 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 11 | |||
Luke Hancock, F | 20 | 3-5 | 2-4 | 0-0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 8 | |||
Mangok Mathiang, F | 14 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 3-4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 | |||
Terry Rozier, G | 14 | 2-6 | 1-2 | 2-2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | |||
Anton Gill, G | 5 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
Tim Henderson, G | 6 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |||
Kevin Ware, G | 13 | 1-4 | 0-0 | 2-2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | |||
TOTALS | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS | ||||
31-62 | 7-18 | 18-26 | 15 | 20 | 35 | 17 | 16 | 3 | 7 | 18 | 87 | |||||
50.0% | 38.9% | 69.2% |
Really looking forward to the weekend.