Louisville Basketball: What is Purdue saying about the Cardinals?
We take a look at what Purdue is saying about the Louisville basketball team heading into their game on Wednesday night.
The Louisville basketball team will be putting their 5-1 record on the line against the 15th ranked Purdue Boilermakers on Wednesday night. The Cardinals will be looking to finish better than they did against Baylor in the Battle 4 Atlantis where they blew a 20-plus point lead.
In a match-up between two top fifteen basketball teams, we can expect a close game throughout the evening. Hold onto your seats Cardinals fans, it could be a nail-biter.
With that being said, let’s take a look at a few quotes from the Boilermakers, courtesy of ESPN.
Purdue coach Matt Painter said he’s looking forward to the challenge at Louisville.
“Their overall length and athleticism is what stands out,” Painter said. “There’s times when you have to swallow your pride when they have two or three people on the basketball. I’ve been shocked … at the times people keep trying to challenge them when they swarm the basketball, and been impressed with their ability to defend and their ability to use their length — not just at the rim, but contesting shots.”
I do agree with Painter on this aspect of Louisville’s game. They do a great job of contesting shots on defense and putting pressure on the ball. The biggest difference between this team and other Pitino squads is that this team cannot turn turnovers into points quite yet.
If Donovan Mitchell and Quentin Snider can start finishing at the rim, then this team could make some noise in 2016-2017.
Painter said scheduling games against teams like Louisville or Villanova isn’t easy, but they will provide long-term benefits for his team.
“It’s hard to schedule games of this nature,” Painter said. “Everyone’s going to play in the Big 10-ACC Challenge, the Crossroads Classic, things of that nature. Not everyone wants to play on the road, even if you do a home and home.”
Yes, games against elite programs do better your basketball team, however it should also be something that you embrace. Scheduling these teams should be easy because they will help your strength of schedule and help towards postseason play.
We have seen the Louisville basketball team get better by playing tough competition all year long. It’s not hard to imagine why small-conference teams struggle in March. They simply don’t play enough strong teams to make it through the entirety of tournament.
Playing tough teams is something to embrace, it’s not something that should be hard, especially when 5 to 10 losses won’t sink your season.
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