Louisville defeats Miami 84-74 in an afternoon special

Louisville played Miami at 11AM today for Elementary School Day. Hundreds of school kids were bused in for the game. No official word if their collective high-pitched banshee wails are what rattled Asia Durr and kept her from hitting a three for the first time in 59 straight games, but I think it’s a solid theory.

Every time Louisville would start to separate themselves Miami would hit a few shots that kept them in striking distance. This was a game without much flow. In the second half especially the officials seemingly called a foul on every. single. possession. Louisville had 8 fouls going into halftime and finished the game with 30. It was a similar differential for Miami. There was no discernible difference in the way the two teams played, but suddenly any attempt at defense turned into a whistle. This made the game seem to stretch on eternally. For a frame of reference, on ESPN 3 the replay of UofL’s game with FSU was 1 hour and 24 minutes. The replay of this game clocked in at TWO HOURS and 3 minutes.

One bright spot was the play of Myisha Hines-Allen. She finished the game with 26 points and 11 rebounds. She also set a record:

Sam Fuehring also had a solid game with a career-high 17 points including this nifty put-back.

After the game Coach Walz said his team’s play was a reverse of the Florida State loss, “We shot the ball at a high percentage but defensively we didn’t show up.” When asked about Asia Durr’s shooting woes he said, “People are beating up on Asia...I should’ve gotten more holding calls for her.” He added that he was sad that her shooting streak ended. He also said, “I’m really proud to be their coach” and that they are going to keep fighting.

The next game is in Louisville vs Wake Forest on Sunday. It is at 1pm and can be seen on RSN. Also save your stub from the MBB vs. Wake Forest for a discount on a ticket to this game.