The University of Louisville Men’s Basketball Season sadly ended March 29, 2015 against Michigan State. The Cardinals finished 27-9 overall and 12-6 in the ACC play. During tournament play the Cards defeated UC Irvine, NC State and Northern Iowa earning them a seat in the Elite Eight where they lost the battle to Michigan State.
For most of the game both teams played equally well in offense and defense. As time started winding down Louisville had the lead at 1:13 with 64-63 due to Wayne Blackshears free throws, but Marvin Clark Jr. (Michigan) responded to the play that allowed Michigan State to get ahead. In the last 5 seconds Mangok Mathiang was fouled and had two attempts at the free throw line. His first shot made it in and tied the game, his second shot was not a good. This caused the game to be played in overtime.
One of Louisville main problems all season long has been offense. The Cards took many shots but it always left the fans uneasy about how many would actually go in. This was clearly evident in the Louisville/Michigan State game. The Cards played well on defense but Michigan played even better on offense and outplayed Louisville.
Some important take aways from this game is that coaching is critical. You can have the best players in the world on your team but if you can’t get them to play together and work like a team to score points, you won’t win. Rick Pitino works hard each year improving his players but this year the scoring percentage fell short. Defense kept this team alive throughout the year but more time should have been spent at the free throw line. If Mathiang had made his second shot, the outcome of the game could have been totally different. I do believe that Rick did a good job as a coach this season. Another take away is that Terry Rozier, Louisville point guard, got outplayed by Michigan States point guard Travis Trice. As a point guard it was Rozier job to score points, his record for this game was 6 out of 22 shots. Michigan States point guard, Travis Trice was able to score 17 points for his team. This is a huge difference in the two. Rozier did do a good job at stealing the ball four times but not making the points he needed to, ultimately lead to the Cardinals failure to move on in the tournament.
One player really did step up for the whole team and that was senior Wayne Blackshear. Blackshears has always been challenged by Rick Pitino to lead from the front and that definitely what he did in this game. Blackshear scored 26 points and 4 of his 5 shots from behind the arc made it in the basket. Blackshear gave it his all in this game and although it didn’t play out as a whole, he did work hard to keep the Cardinals alive. Blackshear definitely left his mark on the University of Louisville Cardinals basketball team.
From this season I learned that luck can only go so far. Overall the team played well enough to get by but that ended on March 29th. I hope that next season will be better than this years. I look forward to the 2016 season and hopefully as a team the Cardinals learn from their mistakes and work harder for next year.
kastaf01 