The Big Blue Lowdown

Louisville took the early lead but once Knight tied the score at 12 on a jumper, it was all UK after that. Louisville had long stretches without offense and just couldn't any traction in the first half, as UK continued to stretch their lead up to 35-24 at the half.

In the early part of the second half, Josh Harrellson made his presence felt with an assist and two jumpers. Louisville was able to get into a bit of an offensive rhythm, but they couldn't keep UK from scoring. UK hit their free throws down the stretch (and UL didn't) and salted away the game nicely in the last few minutes.

Josh Harrellson was clearly the man of the match with a career-high 25 points and 14 boards. Louisville chose to focus on Jones and left Harrellson wide open again and again. Strange, too, how similar many of Harrellson's shots were--the Cards just never countered him! Harrellson has been playing with some swagger lately and this was the culmination of that for him. Congratulations, Josh! Hopefully he just keeps this going right into conference play and instead of picking up the slack, he can draw defenders to him freeing up Jones, Miller, Lamb, etc. Wouldn't think he needed to work on passing out of the double team, but maybe that's his next practice drill!

As eye-opening as Harrellson's performance was today, can't forget what a calming presence Brandon Knight was. When Louisville had a flurry of buckets in the second half, Knight was always there to answer back. He was 7-13 from the floor, 7-8 from the line and only 5 turnovers in 40 minutes of play is not bad for the guy that handles the rock the majority of the time. I think this game was a milestone in his maturation. He controlled the game today, never let the action get out of hand, never let the momentum swing too much. Knight is a fine player--not the crazy skills PG that John Wall was--but a solid ball handling, offense-leading PG. 25 points on efficient shooting is a very, very good thing.

Terrence Jones had wave after wave of Cardinal defenders in his face all game long and while he didn't score a pile of points, he pitched in with 8 hard won boards and 6 assists--nice for the big man!

DeAndre Liggins doesn't show up for much in the box score, but his defensive presence was gigantic today! I thought the real key to Louisville's inability to keep up was their sub-standard guard play. Siva just couldn't get anything going and Knowles didn't heat up until the game was out of hand--and that was all due to the long, lean intensity of Liggins. I'm telling ya: he's playing his way into the NBA on that defense. He's one of those prospects that you have to see him to know what he's all about, the box score won't tell the whole story.

Doron Lamb and Darius Miller ended up with similar stats: 3 rebounds, 3-6 from the floor, perfect from the foul line in similar minutes. Neither really shined out today, but with Harrellson vacuuming up all the extra opportunities, just efficiency and good D was all they needed to pitch in.

Everyone on UK has a defined role now. This is a well-oiled machine. I thought the Coppin St. game was a real showcase of that: no one has to sacrifice for everyone to play well. That is a remarkable place to be for this team and I just keep liking this squad more and more. Slipping Enes Kanter in there might upset some things at first, but I suspect it would be worth it in the long run. But even without him, I think this team can go deep. Knight controls things up top, Liggins has really blossomed into a quality defensive stopper, Jones is the big dog that scores the points, Lamb provides the points off the bench and Miller and Harrellson just keep hustling.