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Louisville Basketball: 5 Extremely Encouraging Takeaways vs. Clemson
We take a look at five extremely encouraging takeaways from Louisville basketball’s win over Clemson on Thursday night.
The Louisville basketball team was able to overcome their first game without Quentin Snider and get a blow-out win over the Clemson Tigers. The Cards’ 92-60 win over their conference-rivals proved that they can handle life without their leader, but the true test will come on Saturday against the Florida State Seminoles.
Louisville played extremely well against Clemson and made an amazing nine shots from the perimeter.
Enough with the short preview and on with the five encouraging takeaways from the win over Clemson:
Jan 19, 2017; Louisville, KY, USA; Clemson Tigers guard Shelton Mitchell (4) dribbles against Louisville Cardinals guard Donovan Mitchell (45) during the first half at KFC Yum! Center. Mandatory Credit: Jamie Rhodes-USA TODAY Sports
5. Louisville Finished The First Half Extremely Strong
It was pretty clear, right out of the gate, that the Cardinals were going to struggle playing without their leader and point guard, Quentin Snider. Not to mention, it didn’t help that Clemson made three straight shots after two Anas Mahmoud turnovers.
However, if there is one thing that I have become very proud of with this team, it’s that they don’t blink whenever times get tough. These guys have played in so many huge basketball games this year, that they’ve learned to not freak out when your down by seven to a team like Clemson.
The turning point of this game came at the 9:12 mark in the first half, when Clemson pushed their lead to nine. Deng Adel then made a lay-up, which sparked a Louisville run that helped them get their first lead with 5:32 left in the half.
With that being said, the most impressive finish to the half was Donovan Mitchell making two, three pointers in the last 15 seconds. Remember what we said about Mitchell rising in Draft Express’ NBA Mock Draft?
Jan 19, 2017; Louisville, KY, USA; Louisville Cardinals forward Jaylen Johnson (10) scrambles for a loose ball with Clemson Tigers guard Marcquise Reed (2) during the first half at KFC Yum! Center. Mandatory Credit: Jamie Rhodes-USA TODAY Sports
4. Jaylen Johnson Had His Best Performance In Weeks
Rick Pitino decided it would be a good idea to go ahead and put Jaylen Johnson back into the starting lineup and it definitely paid off. You’d think I would be smart enough not to question the Hall-of-Fame head coach, but he knows his players a lot better than I do.
Jaylen Johnson finally showed the toughness and grit that we were waiting to see from him this season. He showed some of that early, but it’s hard to take any performance seriously against teams like Long Beach State or Evansville.
With that being said, Jaylen Johnson did end up getting tossed from the game after getting in a verbal “altercation” late in the second half. It was pretty dumb to do something like that against a team like Clemson and especially in a game where you’re winning by 20.
However, I’ll take an aggressive Jaylen Johnson over a passive Johnson any day of the week.
Jan 19, 2017; Louisville, KY, USA; Louisville Cardinals forward Ray Spalding (13) blocks the shot of Clemson Tigers forward Jaron Blossomgame (5) during the first half at KFC Yum! Center. Mandatory Credit: Jamie Rhodes-USA TODAY Sports
3. Louisville Out-Scored Clemson 51-29 In The Second Half
I don’t think I can stress enough just how important those final few minutes of the first half were for the Cards. Literally everything went Louisville’s way after Donovan Mitchell hit that three at the buzzer and they never looked back. Not to mention, Clemson looked defeated after that.
The Cardinals came out of the second half and out-scored Clemson 51-29. That’s extremely impressive given how this basketball team tends to let up whenever they build a decent lead.
The bench guys played very well in the second half as well. Heck, even Tony Hicks found a way to put up nine points.
This is a very good sign for a Louisville team that is heading down south to play Florida State on Saturday afternoon without Quentin Snider. It looks as though they may have enough of a fight in them to knock off the Seminoles.
Jan 14, 2017; Louisville, KY, USA; Louisville Cardinals head coach Rick Pitino reacts during the first half against the Duke Blue Devils at KFC Yum! Center. Louisville defeated Duke 78-69. Mandatory Credit: Jamie Rhodes-USA TODAY Sports
2. Five Cardinals Ended The Night In Double Figures
The first 10 minutes of the game had every one of us very concerned with how this team was going to deal with Quentin Snider’s absence on the court. They looked sluggish, bad, and out of control on offense, but that didn’t last for long.
Louisville ended the game against Clemson with five different players scoring at least 12 points:
Hopefully the Cardinals didn’t use up all of their shooting magic in one night because they were on fire from downtown. Louisville hit nine threes on Thursday night and shot over 50 percent from the field.
This is exactly the type of performance the Cards are going to need whenever they square up against the Florida State Seminoles on Saturday.
Dec 21, 2016; Louisville, KY, USA; Louisville Cardinals forward Deng Adel (22) reacts during the second half against the Kentucky Wildcats at KFC Yum! Center. Louisville defeated Kentucky 73-70. Mandatory Credit: Jamie Rhodes-USA TODAY Sports
1. Deng Adel Stepped Up Big-Time
We all knew that Donovan Mitchell was going to do his best to try and make up for Snider’s absence against Clemson, but the real question mark was seeing if Deng Adel would step up and produce. Not only did he produce, he played one of his best games of the entire season so far.
Deng Adel finished the game against Clemson with 18 points, 6 rebounds, and 2 assists in the Cards’ win. If he can start hitting 2-3 three pointers per game, then this Louisville team is about to get very dangerous.
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Now that the Clemson game is out of the way, let’s see if Adel can have another performance like this against Florida State. Louisville is going to have to score at this rate in order to keep pace with the Seminoles, but it’s not like this team hasn’t done it before.
