CHARLOTTE, NC — Miami’s size proved more lethal than Louisville basketball’s shooters Thursday in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals. The Cardinals suffered a 78-73 defeat to the Hurricanes in a game that could foreshadow the fate awaiting the Cards in the NCAA Tournament.
Should they get the wrong draw and face a team with as imposing a frontcourt as the Canes, it could lead to an early exit.
UofL coach Pat Kelsey composed his roster with enough shooters to lead the ACC and rank fourth nationally attempting nearly 53% of all their shots from 3-point range. A team built on shooting has to make shots, and in their two games combined in Charlotte, the Cards went 12-for-50 from behind the arc including just 6-for-24 against the Canes.
“When we’re hitting shots, we’re a tough team to beat,” UofL senior guard Isaac McKneely said. “I’m not worry worried a bit about our offense.”
McKneely, a career 41% shooter from 3, had a particularly rough outing and it could have impacted why he went 1-for-6 from 3.
Just four minutes into the game, he collided with Ryan Conwell and was on the floor bleeding from his head and grabbing his left shoulder. He reentered the game after getting staples in his head to keep the cut closed and would wear a heat warming pack on his shoulder when he came to the bench.
Conwell missed a total of eight minutes of game action in the process and when he checked back in with 7:59 left in the first half, he never really got into the flow of the game despite having some open shots to do so.
Miami utilized its size advantage in the second half, getting the ball to 6-foot-9 forward Malik Reneau who was defended by the generously listed 6-foot-7 forward J’Vonne Hadley. Reneau scored 18 of his game-high 24 points in the second half including seven of the Canes’ first 12 points as they forged ahead 49-41.
“All game he’s going to try to just lower his shoulder right into you,” Hadley said.
Hadley’s been used as an undersized power forward the better part of his two seasons with the Cards. His toughness allows them to run a four-guard offense that often works in his favor when it creates mismatches for their offense, just as it did in the quarterfinals, as Hadley scored 19 points.
But it works against them when defensively the Cards have to trap or get caught in positions where they end up fouling because they are undersized. Miami’s frontcourt accounted for 18 of the team’s 29 free throw attempts against UofL.
“One of the things that makes them really good, they are attacking you and driving you, even when nothing’s there,” Kelsey said.
The Canes kept pounding the ball inside, running up 44 points in the paint. UofL is just 4-5 in games when its opponent scored at least 40 points in the paint.
Louisville cut an eight-point deficit down to 69-68 with 1:23 left. Miami coach Jai Lucas took a timeout to draw up a play for Reneau that ended with a layup and the Cards never had the ball with a chance to tie again.
Kelsey believes Louisville could face more of the same when they learn of their NCAA Tournament seed and bracket on Selection Sunday.
“College basketball, at the top, it’s football,” Kelsey said. “It really is so we know the teams that we’re gonna have to beat to advance in the NCAA Tournament are gonna be tough, physical and nasty, but so are the Cardinals.”
It will certainly help the Cards if guard Mikel Brown Jr. returns from his back injury. Or things could get nasty without him.
Reach sports columnist C.L. Brown at clbrown1@gannett.com, follow him on X at @CLBrownHoops and subscribe to his newsletter at profile.courier-journal.com/newsletters/cl-browns-latest to make sure you never miss one of his columns.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville vs Miami, UofL March Madness projections, Pat Kelsey record