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The last time the Louisville men’s basketball team played an exhibition game against a Division II opponent, former coach Kenny Payne dropped one of the most infamous lines of his disastrous two-year tenure: “We can’t be teams with talent.”
What a difference six months can make.
Pat Kelsey’s new-look Cardinals were not only the more talented team on the court Monday night, during a 106-59 win against Young Harris College at the KFC Yum! Center, but they also played with a level of cohesion that was rarely, if ever, seen while Payne was at the helm.
They didn’t look like a group hastily assembled through the NCAA transfer portal this spring. As was the case during a dominant exhibition tour of the Bahamas this summer, they looked as if they’ve been playing together for a couple of seasons.
Make no mistake: U of L will be tested early and often out of the gate, to the tune of potentially eight teams ranked in the preseason AP Top 25 before Jan. 2. The competition it faced Monday night was a step up from the Baha Mar Hoops Summer League — in 2023-24, Young Harris ranked among the top DII teams in terms of field-goal percentage defense (42.4%) — but the Mountain Lions were outclassed from the jump.
Speaking with reporters last week, Kelsey said he and his staff were preparing their players for this game as if they were playing Duke. Some of that can be attributed to his belief that the “next thing” is “the most important” thing; but there are a lot of demons to exorcize in the Yum! Center — starting with two exhibition losses to Lenoir-Rhyne and Kentucky Wesleyan.
Consider them gone. For the first time in a long time, fans were leaving early on a school night because the Cards had built too commanding of a lead — not the other way around.
They needed only 12 minutes and some change to make more 3-pointers (14) than they did during both of last season’s exhibitions combined (13). They finished with 24, which would have been a new program record…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/louisville-basketball-cohesion-display-pat-005100014.html
Author : The Courier Journal
Publish date : 2024-10-22 00:51:00
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