bacon's bits: MAHMOUD TAKES GIANT STEP, LEADS LOUISVILLE TO VICTORY

By Mark Bacon
Q: When is watching a Louisville Basketball game like watching a Skins’ football game?

A: When the game is never fully in hand, and one CANNOT relax watching it. 

Like yesterday, when Louisville found itself in a dog fight against Georgia Tech. The conference battle had 11 lead changes and nine tied scores. Louisville's shocking answer was 7-foot, 215-pound sophomore Anas Mahmoud, whose career-high 15 points (13 in the second half) carried the 17th-ranked Cards to a 75-71 victory in Atlanta.

• Anas Mahmoud? The spindly sophomore center who entered the game averaging 2.5 points and 2.9 rebounds a game. 

• "Without question, the key to the game, in the second half, was going to Anas Mahmoud," Pitino said. "Anas is the best passing big man (on the team). His length bothers people, but more important, he's got a great low-post game. He's just a little weak. Per minute played, he's the best stat-stuffer on the team. He did a great job for us."

• Damion Lee, the grad transfer wing, led U of L with 17 points, wasn't as surprised as most observers would be. Mahmoud, Lee said, shows his potential quite often in practice.

• "You guys really don't see it," Lee said. "In practice, sometimes Anas can be the best player on the team and literally can take over practice on the offensive end and the defensive end.

• Lee came out in attack mode, and his scoring gave boost U of L’s perimeter game a shot in the arm. Particularly in the first half as the Cards’ interior players struggled with the Yellow Jacket’s physicality. Lee entered the game shooting 2 for 20 from 3-point range over his last three games. That rough run ended against GA Tech with a much better shooting performance. Fellow graduate transfer Trey Lewis, also ended a 1-for-16 3-point shooting skid of his own.

• Chinanu Onuaku has now posted six consecutive double-doubles, all in ACC play. He has been fantastic of late, and Louisville is a much better team the 6-10 sophomore is on the floor. He also snatched a nice steal that showed off his basketball IQ, and he blocked a 3-pointer. Onuaku finished with 12 points, 10 rebounds and four assists.

• Let’s not overlook freshman guard Donovan Mitchell. Again Mitchell showed no fear when the game was on the line, making a pair of enormous buckets at a key juncture in the second half, rebounding and creating turnovers better than any other U of L guard, and calmly sinking a pair of free-throws to seal the deal with 16 seconds left.

The game was far from U of L's best performance of the season, but in time, it might be viewed as a game that was more significant than it seemed at the time.

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