Louisville Basketball's blowout loss to #12 Tennessee reiterates need for patience early in season

Louisville Cardinals fans, brace yourselves as the team faces a challenging season in the NCAA. After a tough 22-point loss to the Tennessee Volunteers, questions loom over the Cardinals' performance and future prospects. With a roster of 13 new players and a fresh coaching staff led by Pat Kelsey, the team is navigating early hurdles. Can Louisville's talent overcome chemistry issues and rebound from this setback?

Host Dalton Pence breaks down the Cardinals' struggles, from poor shooting and rebounding to defensive lapses. Key players like Reyne Smith and Chucky Hepburn are under the spotlight as the team seeks to improve. The episode also highlights upcoming matchups against formidable opponents like Indiana and Kentucky, raising the stakes for Louisville's season.

Explore the in-depth analysis of Louisville's current challenges and potential for growth. Don't miss out on this episode's insights into the Cardinals' journey and what it means for their future. Listen now to understand the dynamics at play and what lies ahead for Louisville basketball!

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[redstate]

A brand new team playing their 2nd game against one of the top tier defensive teams in the nation in front of a huge "white out" crowd and you get popped in the mouth. Sounds like Jan. already. We normally get popped in the mouth in Jan. a couple of times. Denny Crum had tough schedules and we lost some early games, but we got film to study and it made us a better team. Tennessee scouted us well and at this point we're pretty vanilla anyway. They will be looking to repeat as SEC Champ again this year. Now we root for each other against uk! We'll be fine.

[JoeyAllen-gkhx]

I think we learn and get way better from this

[mikehawk]

Louisville definitely has some glaring weaknesses.

1. Louisville lacks a legit post game.

Meaning, Louisville doesn't have a post presence it can go to to keep the opposing defense honest on the perimeter. Louisville is essentially a team of guards and wings. There's nothing wrong with that, but just know that teams who have very good guard play and a respectable inside game will punish Louisville like Tennessee did.

2. Louisville lacks a defensive presence around the rim.

I saw Tennessee take clear paths to the rim with no fear of a defensive presence in the paint.

3. Louisville's defense simply isn't disruptive enough.

I think this is the most important flaw of the three, because Louisville can compensate for #1 and #2 by playing disruptive defense. Pressure full court, put pressure on the ball, get a high number of deflections. Try to get into the opposing team's legs.

These three major flaws are why Louisville was never a threat to Tennessee during the game.

I think these weaknesses will unfortunately create a ceiling for Louisville that is an NCAA tournament play-in game team.

I am not sure Louisville will reach this ceiling, however.

I think the ACC will be brutal for Louisville, in that the prediction of them finishing 9th is likely a ceiling for Louisville. It is likely they will finish below 9th.

[garygable]

I have never seen such a big overreaction to one game. I think they were nervous and missed shots early, which gave TN a 10-point lead right away. If they had just relaxed and made open shots, it would have been a competitive game. Tennessee is a top-10 team and has been playing together for a long time. The game did what it should have done: It showed Louisville what they need to work on to improve.

[russellclark]

We can all tip our hats to Tennessee on this one for sure! With that being said you can’t get blown off the floor at home. They took us completely out of our game and we didn’t make adjustments. I think we will be fine, but we can’t be too patient with one of the toughest schedules.

[trey]

I think what’s concerning to me.. is it looks like Edward’s is using this season to raise draft stock and nothing more.. against lower competition he’s fine playing the team ball but it looks like during the big competition he’s going to want to try to win the games himself.. 2-12 from the field, yet James Scott didn’t get a single shot up, Traore got up like 3 shots, Hepburn and Hadley I think only got up 5 or 6 shots.. at some point when a player ends up 2-12 he needs to fall back and spread the ball.. didn’t seem like Edwards was gonna do that in the game competition… something to look at in the future

[JoeyAllen-gkhx]

Would much rather get busted now rather than playing 10 straight cupcakes and thinking we are perfect. A lot of good teams will take ass beatings early

[trey]

Realistically We knew the raw talent was not to the level of a top 15 team.. we know that it’s gonna take time but as long as there’s progress we know we will be okay

[joewanstate]

I thought we showed signs of being a good team. Louisville got it back down to single digits a few times after being down 20 plus. They just looked extremely nervous.

[EBurks-fwze]

We’ll be ok. Tennessee is very good. Some things were exposed. We can’t afford to get off to bad starts, and our best scorers come off the bench. Reyne and Kasean gotta start. Three of our current starters are very limited offensively. I’m still waiting for Traore and Edwards to show me they can score on this level. With all that being said, I think we win 20 games.

[questioneverything]

The SEC will have 9 or 10 teams in the tournament! Stacked!

[mikehawk]

Let me put this in perspective for you.

Gardner Webb went to Tennessee and lost by 16.
Louisville lost by 22 to Tennessee at Louisville.

Interpret that how you want.

[sidisavadogo]

My thing is that we shoot lots of 3's with one real shooter (Reyne Smith).

[benjaminbush]

Kentucky fan here. Kelsey took over a completely decimated program that was close to falling into irrelevancy. He definitely came into a much bigger mess than Pope. He put together a good team quickly, not as good as Kentucky but they'll get it together and probably get into the NCAA. That would be a huge improvement compared to the last few seasons.

[trey]

I’m sorry dalton but I don’t want to keep using the excuse of 11 new players playing together.. at some point we have to say that the talent is just not there at the high level yet.. not to be this guy but UK is in same situation as far as new coach and almost complete new roster, yet they just beat #6 Duke.. it is a raw talent issue.. we were bodied inside by Tennessee and the perimeter guys didn’t show a talent level to get past the perimeter defense consistently.. I’m still very optimistic bout the season as a whole I think a 20-10 record is more than doable but the raw talent does not seem to be there for top15 opponents