Mistakes Remain, But Effort Improves in Louisville's Loss to Syracuse

They still turned the ball over at a high rate and weren't perfect, but the Cardinals were noticeably more active against the Orange.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - For the Louisville men's basketball program, their first game of 2023 ended like so many other games in the previous calendar year did: a loss.

Facing Syracuse on Tuesday night, the Cardinals lets victory slip from their grasp, as the Orange were able to escape from the KFC Yum! Center on top and deliver a heartbreaking 70-69 loss to their hosts.

As we approach the midway point of the 2022-23 season, finding themselves on the wrong end of the win/loss column has been far from unfamiliar for Louisville. 15 games into a 31-game regular season, the Cardinals have won just twice, with many of their losses coming in decisive blowout fashion.

That being said, their loss to Syracuse didn't follow the same familiar script that we have seen all season long. Typically, Louisville has displayed a very clear lack of energy and effort, which has been a detriment on both ends of the floor. The offense usually features a fair amount of players just standing around, whereas the rotations and closeouts on defense are almost non-existent at times.

However, that wasn't on display for most of the night against the Orange. Louisville took a few minutes to get settled, but when they did, they put together their best stretch of basketball in roughly a month. Defense was active, offense wasn't stagnant, and it resulted in a 17-2 run to take control of the game.

Even after Syracuse fired off a run of their own, Louisville didn't completely fold like they have so many times this year, and finished the first half strong to capture only their fourth halftime lead all season long. After halftime, they also took much better care of the ball and were more decisive with their passes. Although they did still finish with seven in the second half, that was accompanied by seven assists and 17 for the game.

“The game plan was to get the ball to the middle (of Syracuse's zone)," forward Mike James said, who finished with a career-high 19 points. "Once you get the ball in the middle, you can face up and kind of see guys sliding into open areas being ready to shoot, and he told us to shoot the ball confidently and I felt like as a team we did. I feel like we made the right passes and the right decisions out of the middle, and we were aggressive, and we shot the ball very well. In their zone, that’s what you really need to do.”

Still even with a noticeable improvement in the energy and effort department, Louisville still was handed a loss thanks to a lack of execution and simple mistakes. They had the opportunity to really put their foot on Syracuse's throat, only to let them fire off their own 17-2 run thanks in part to a whopping 14 first half turnovers, many of which were unforced errors.

"We gave it away," first year head coach Kenny Payne said. "My heart goes out to my team because they deserved to win. They are getting better. They are fighting. They are trying. But at the end of the day, nobody is going to give it to you. We are going to have to take it."

While they were able to do a better job at handling the ball, their shooting percentage went from 50.0 percent in the first half to 37.1 percent in the second half, which prohibited them from putting any sort of meaningful distance between them and the Orange. 

Even still, Louisville had a chance to win at the end. But again, a turnover by El Ellis - which may or may not have actually been a foul on Syracuse's Jesse Edwards - sealed their fate.

There's no question that, despite the execution not being optimal overall, the effort and energy, against Syracuse was much improved. But time will tell if that was a one-off performance or a sign of better things to come. and Payne wants his team to regularly demonstrate a killer instinct.

It will be a step in the right direction should they consistently fight, scratch and claw against their opponents, as executing at a higher level will eventually follow suit.

"We are going to have to change the perception of who you are and what you are," he said. "You have to be realistic and we have to look at ourselves and see what are people saying about Louisville. Then we have to go and change it. If that means we get technical fouls because we hit somebody across the face then we should get technical fouls because we hit somebody across the face.

"We are not going to accept people looking at us turning the ball over and looking at us and thinking we can offensive rebound against them because they are soft. That is not acceptable."

Louisville will be back in action this weekend when they host Wake Forest at the KFC Yum! Center. Tip-off against the Demon Deacons is scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 7 at 3:00 p.m. EST.

(Photo of Mike James, Benny Williams: Jamie Rhodes - USA TODAY Sports)

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