LOUISVILLE IMITATES WEATHER: GOES FRIGID. UPSET BY CLEMSON.

By Mark Bacon

Louisville basketball today offered up it’s Annual January Disaster. Their performance against Clemson on the road Sunday afternoon was wildly disappointing AND shocking. They made like the weather back home, and froze up. The final was 66-62, Clemson.

• U of L did not respond positively to Clemson’s physicality. Coach Rick Pitino complained that the game looked as if it were played under last year’s rules of contact as opposed to this year’s.

• One of the nation's top offensive teams, U of L missed 19 of its 22 3-point attempts. They shot 35.8 percent from the field for the game, and were handed their first upset loss of the season. Clemson shot a worse percentage from the field than the Cards (32.6), but made a season-high 44 trips to the free-throw line, scoring 32 of their 66 points at the stripe. The Cards went to the line just 16 times, scoring only 11 points.

• More angst? Louisville out-rebounded Clemson by 22 (53-31), had one more assist (11-10), but absolutely couldn't make open shots. From ANY spot on the floor.

• Wretched perimeter shooting, including 16 straight misses before finally making a three-pointer. The Cards shot a pathetic 3-for-23 from three-point land. The top two scorers and team leaders on the season, Damion Lee and Trey Lewis, combined to go 5-for-31, and 1-for-18 from three.

• “Damion Lee, you know, this was his first bad day,” Pitino said. “He was worried way too much about his jump shot rather than just playing Louisville basketball, win the game. You can’t get consumed with your jump shot, whether it goes in or not. You’ve got to be consumed with getting rebounds, creating turnovers, and doing other things in the game. Get an offensive rebound. Get a steal. If you’re going to be one-dimensional, then you’re going to have nights like tonight.”

• The Cards tom-tommed the ball outside all day, leading to a notable lack of ball movement: they had just 11 assists; only 36 in the past four games.

• Too many fouls. Once again, Chinanu Onuaku reverted to his old form, and  was saddled with foul trouble all night. Clemson went to the line 44 times while the Cards shot only 16 free throws.

• There was again a disturbing lack of forced turnovers. Louisville isn’t getting steals, just five on Sunday and 21 over the past four games.

• The defense just sucked. Period. 

BACON'S BITS: There wasn’t a single positive to be taken from the game. Not one. Louisville has its work cut out for them preparing for a surprising Pitt team Thursday. The sooner they get to work on their many shortcomings, the better.

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