After the Buzzer: Miami

I am excited to get this basketball season underway with the “After the Buzzer” posts for the second year here on Card Chronicle. If you didn’t catch them last year, it’s just going to be a few notes from the game that I will give some thoughts on, and then finish up with some film review. This is usually about 10-15 clips of certain plays that I want to point out for varying reasons. Maybe it’s an X’s and O’s thing or maybe it’s someone giving effort that needs to be recognized. Either way, hopefully you find it worth your time. Thanks for checking it out. Let’s get this 2019-20 season going.

Quick Hitters

-Samuell Williamson has composure. If the freshman showed us anything, it’s that he is ready to play and contribute at this level. No part of him looked nervous for his first collegiate action. He played with confidence and had the body language of somebody that knew they belonged on the floor. He finished with 13 points on 6-9 shooting, grabbed five rebounds, and had an assist. The points are great, but it’s awesome to see him in there getting five boards as well. This kid could be a really good one.

-Ryan McMahon came up huge. McMahon ignited the run in the first half that basically put the game away for the Cards. Miami was in control of the game early on and had what little momentum they could get from the crowd of 53 Miami fans in attendance, but McMahon was there to silence them. He got the start and responded with four three-pointers on his way to 16 points. Check out the film review below. While I love the shots he took, I was much more impressed with a couple of his defensive plays.

-Dwayne Sutton was a beast. I hope to say that a lot this season. But with Malik Williams out and Aidan Igiehon only logging 12 minutes, Sutton had to play the center spot a lot. And he played like he was 6’10. He only had five rebounds, but three of them came on the offensive end, which were huge. He also chipped in 16 points on an efficient 6-7 shooting night. He didn’t take a three pointer, which I like to see. He can knock it down, but he doesn’t have to, and I liked that he never forced one.

-I think Fresh Kimble will be just fine. He was at St. Joe’s for four years. There will surely be an adjustment period in his new program. It’s going to take some live game action to build that chemistry with his new teammates. He only scored six points, but his role on this team won’t be to score 15-20 like he had to in the past. However, he did show that he can score if needed. He made a couple of nice midrange shots and played under control for the most part. These next few games against lesser opponents should help him get more comfortable here.

-I thought Jordan Nwora was fine. He scored how we expect him to. I’d still like to see him have more assists than turnovers. In this game he had two of each. Last season he had 44 assists and 80 turnovers, so that obviously needs to be better. So I will be paying attention this season to see if he can keep the assist number higher than the turnover number.

-Not too worried about the late run by Miami to close the game out. For the most part, it was Darius Perry and four freshmen on the court. You would like for that to not happen, but the core group of guys also had such a big lead built that a 14-0 run still allowed the Cards to win by 13. Not a big deal to me.

-Darius Perry had four assists and two turnovers. That’s a positive start.

-I’m not sure that Quinn Slazinski is ready for significant minutes just yet, especially on the defensive end.

-Louisville now plays six very manageable games before the schedule gets tougher with Michigan. Hopefully we can see the freshmen get more comfortable and we can see who will be in the rotation this season. It’s also a good chance for Fresh to get some time, and it will allow David Johnson and Malik Williams to heal and not be rushed back.

-Good start to the season. We are already 1-0 in ACC play.

Film Review: