LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB+WAVE) — Before we get carried away, a reminder: Louisville’s 89-83 win over Kansas on Wednesday night doesn’t count.
It’s an exhibition. That won’t help the No. 11-ranked Cardinals’ NCAA Tournament resume improve their NET rankings or show up in the standings. We (meaning me) should not exaggerate what we learned in this game.
This officially makes no sense.
But here’s another thing that’s true: There’s no such thing as a bad night to win at Allen Fieldhouse.
Especially when you do it against a 17th-ranked Kansas team, after taking an early punch and with the distinct impression that your own team is only beginning to understand what it can become.
Pat Kelsey took a rebuilt Louisville team into one of the most intimidating buildings in college basketball and watched it do something good teams do.
He replied.
Kansas took a 15-8 lead. Louisville trailed by one at halftime. Then the Cardinals scored 53 points in the second half, built a double-digit lead and held off a late charge from Kansas.
And they did it with unexpected contributions.
You can’t overreact to October basketball. But you also don’t have to pretend you didn’t see what you saw.
Some points to note:
Jackson Shelstad remembered how to shoot.
The Oregon transfer made just one of nine three-point attempts during Louisville’s summer trip to the Bahamas.
He apparently left this shooting period somewhere in the Caribbean.
Shelstad scored 23 points Wednesday, including five 3-pointers, and looked like the kind of offensive weapon Kelsey envisioned when he brought him to Louisville.
He scored 16 in the second half, when Louisville began to pull away from the Jayhawks.
And it wasn’t just the shooting. Shelstad played with confidence, created offense and gave Louisville a reliable scoring option when it needed it.
Louisville has plenty of players who can score. What he needs is someone who can take charge of part of a game.
Shelstad showed he could be that guy.
Obinna Ekezie Jr. is going to make it difficult not to overreact.
Here’s your obligatory October warning: He’s a freshman. He’s going to make mistakes. He will have difficult nights. No one should start outfitting them in an NBA uniform after exposure.
Now that we’ve got that out of the way, damn it.
Ekezie, the 7-foot-2 freshman, has been a revelation.
He scored 17 points, made four three-pointers and blocked five shots. He looked comfortable around the basket, comfortable beyond the arc and distinctly uncomfortable for Kansas players trying to score on him.
It’s one thing to have a 7-footer who can protect the rim. It’s another to have someone who can come out and make defenses respect his shot.
Ekezie did both.
And if you’re Kelsey, the most exciting part might be what happens when he learns more about the game at this level.
There’s a lot of basketball ahead of him. But there are also a lot of things to work on.
Louisville took a punch and fought back.
Kansas came out with energy. The Jayhawks made shots, fed off the crowd and put Louisville in an early hole. The Cardinals did not panic. They gradually clawed their way back, trailed only 37-36 at halftime, then pulled away.
Adrian Wooley made two threes early in the second half. Alvaro Folgueiras added another. Shelstad started. Suddenly, Louisville wasn’t just surviving on Allen Fieldhouse. It dictated the game.
The Cardinals ultimately led by 11.
Kansas made its inevitable run, cutting the lead to two in the final minute. But Louisville made enough plays and free throws to finish the job.
It matters. Not in the standings, but in the development of a team that is still learning to play together.
It’s easy to look great when things are going well. It’s more instructive to see how a team reacts when things go wrong.
Louisville passed this first test.
Flory Bidunga didn’t score much. He still mattered.
There will be nights when Louisville needs Bidunga to provide a significant offensive presence.
Wednesday was not one of them.
The Kansas transfer scored just five points against his former team. He had major issues and never really established himself as an offensive force.
But his defense made the difference. Bidunga contested shots, provided resistance around the rim and gave Louisville the kind of athletic interior presence it lacked at times last season.
And here’s something to consider: Louisville scored 89 points at Kansas without needing a big offensive night from one of its most important players.
This is a rather encouraging development.
It’s also worth watching how Kelsey uses Bidunga and Ekezie together. Both can protect the rim. Ekezie’s outside shooting gives Louisville some intriguing possibilities.
Kelsey wanted more size and athleticism. He certainly has it.
There was a lot of offense. And lots of things to clean.
For all the talk about defense in the game, Louisville won with offense. He shot 48.3 percent from the field and made 14 of 30 three-pointers. Half of the Cards’ shots came from threes. Four players made multiple threes.
That’s a lot of firepower, especially on the road against Kansas.
The Cardinals also benefited from helpful contributions from Seth Trimble, who scored 12 points, and De’Shayne Montgomery, who added nine. Wooley and Folgueiras each scored three points at just the right time.
But it wasn’t a finished product.
Kansas scored 46 points in the paint to Louisville’s 20. The Jayhawks made a late push after Louisville appeared to be in control. And there were times when the Cardinals offense still looked like a group of talented players learning each other’s tendencies.
That’s exactly what they are.
What’s encouraging is that Louisville has multiple ways to score, multiple players who can change a game, and enough depth that a quiet night from one or two of them doesn’t become a crisis.
The defensive details will need work. Consistency too.
But Kelsey has some interesting options.
The main thing.
It’s an exhibition victory, nothing more.
But the Cardinals went to Allen Fieldhouse, absorbed an early punch, found answers and emerged victorious.
They discovered a little more about Shelstad. They discovered a lot about Ekezie. They won without much offense from Bidunga.
And they have shown signs of becoming a team rather than just a group of new players.
There are worse things to discover in October.
The game didn’t matter. Experience does.
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