Louisville fell to 14-5 overall on the season and 2-4 in Big East play after blowing a huge early lead against Marquette on the road, 63-74. The Cardinals have now lost five of their last seven contests, dating back to their first home loss in the calendar year 2011 against Georgetown December 28th.
Louisville's leading scorer on the season, Kyle Kuric, missed his second straight game with a severe high-ankle sprain.
Freshman guard Russ Smith led the Cardinals in scoring again, dropping a game high 20 on the Golden Eagles. Senior guard Chris Smith was a close second with 19 points, and freshman forward Chane Behanan was the only other double-digit scorer for Louisville with 10.
Darius Johnson-Odom led Marquette with 19 points, while three other Golden Eagles scored in double figures: starters Davante Gardner and Jae Crowder scored 17 and 14 respectively, while Todd Mayo added 11 off Buzz Williams' bench.
Shooting has pretty much a wash in this game - Louisville was percentage points better at 26 of 63 (41.3%) while Marquette went 25 of 61 (41%); and from distance, Marquette was slightly better hitting 8 of 22 (36.4%) compared to Louisville's 7 of 23 (30.4%). Louisville even managed to out rebound the Golden Eagles, 37-32.
The game was really a tale of two stretches - Louisville opened the game with an incredible shooting touch, including a trio of early three-pointers, and shocked Marquette coach Buzz Williams had to call a quick timeout with the Cards up 18-2. The second stretch came midway through the second half, after Louisville had cut Marquette's lead to four; the Cardinals would go a full five minutes without a bucket while Marquette added to their lead.
The long scoring drought when it mattered most has been the first prominent feature to a Louisville season headed the wrong direction. Scoring has been a problem since day one for this squad, and things turned quickly in this game because of that simple fact. Once Marquette got the lead back to seven, a string of ill-advised Louisville three point attempts came, as the immature young squad kept trying to get it all back at once instead of grinding out a win on the defensive end while playing solid half-court offense.
The second prominent feature of the Louisville season gone astray is this squad's complete inability to defend without fouling. You would be hard pressed to find a single team in the country that doesn't have at least one player in constant foul trouble, but you'd an even harder time finding an entire squad as foul-prone as Louisville. The majority of Marquette's run to retake the lead before half time didn't come from excellent shooting or on long distance shots (they were pretty on-par with Louisville in those departments in the first half), it came from the free throw line. Louisville probably hasn't had a single opponent this season that wasn't shooting in the bonus before or pretty close to the under twelve media timeout. This problem is compounded by the fact that the Cardinals don't get to the line, either. In yesterday afternoon's game, Louisville was a measly 4 for 10 (40%) shooting free throws. Marquette, on the other hand, was 16 for 18 (88.9%). That's a 12-point advantage right there, which means a lot considering Louisville only lost by 11. But such has been the story all year - Marquette hit four times as many free throws as Louisville, and attempted nearly twice as many. Louisville committed 20 personal fouls in the game, compared to Marquette's 12.
The loss drops Louisville into possession of 11th place in the Big East - tied with St. John's (whom Louisville did beat to technically have sole possession). Only the top eight teams in the Big East get conference tournament byes, so Louisville needs to do something and do it fast if they want to climb out of the Big East cellar.
Louisville's next chance for redemption comes this Saturday, when they will travel to the Peterson Events Center to take on equally-floundering Pittsburgh. The Panthers are currently 0-6 in conference after an eight point home loss to #1 undefeated Syracuse last night.
Louisville cannot enter Saturday's contest looking for pity or expecting Pittsburgh to roll over - they hung tight with the top team in the country last night, and if anybody in the country might be more desperate to turn things around and get some big wins than Louisville is, it's definitely Pittsburgh. The always defensively aggressive team will be playing for pride, protecting their home court, and who knows, maybe even fighting for coach Jamie Dixon's job.
Louisville's matchup with Pittsburgh will be at 9:00pm this Saturday on ESPN.
GO CARDS!
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