In IU’s last nonconference tilt of the season, No. 6 Louisville provides a tough test for IU.
Both teams come into the game at Banker’s Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis coming off losses in their respective conference openers Wednesday. IU fell to Nebraska, while Louisville lost against No. 12 Virginia.
However, IU is not focused on that disappointing defeat, which snapped IU’s 26-game home winning streak.
“We’re not looking back at Nebraska,” sophomore forward Thomas Bryant said. “We’re focused right here on Louisville. We know we got punched in the mouth and we have to come out with a different mindset in the next game.”
Louisville’s loss to Virginia snapped the Cardinals’ six-game winning streak. The Virginia defense suffocated Louisville and the Cardinals struggled to shoot from three-point range. Louisville shot two of 14 from deep in the loss and fell behind by as much as 21 points before coming back late in the game.
This was only Louisville’s second loss of the season and the only other came against No. 4 Baylor 66-63.
“Louisville provides an incredible challenge because as I’ve told these guys, they could play for a lot of years and they might not see a much longer team than this,” IU Coach Tom Crean said. “They utilize that length extremely well. They are battle tested.”
Because of its length, Louisville's elite defense gives up an average of just 60.3 points per game, which is good for the 15th best in the country.
Freshman forward De’ron Davis said he is impressed with what he's seen out of the Cardinals defensively.
“Their athleticism, how they block shots,” Davis said. “How they move without the ball. We got to be smart and we got to be able to ice the ball and attack the paint.”
The Cardinals’ offense is led by a trio of players averaging double digits. Junior guard Quentin Snider is Louisville’s leading scorer with 11.6 points per game. However, he hasn’t been overly efficient this season as he is shooting just 35.3-percent from the field.
Joining Snider in the backcourt is sophomore guard Donovan Mitchell, who is averaging 11.5 points per game. Mitchell has struggled from three-point range in his career, shooting only 26.9-percent.
Sophomore forward Deng Adel is Louisville’s best big man, he’s averaging 10.2 points and 4.5 rebounds per game this season.
Bryant said IU has been laser-focused since the loss to Nebraska, putting in the time to prepare correctly for the marquee matchup.
“The last few days have been total preparation for this game,” Bryant said. “Just looking at the film of the last game and learning from it and getting out there on the court and executing what we have to do.”
Bryant said that ball movement and communication have been stressed in practice leading up to Saturday. Both things that have been harped on the entire season by Crean as issues in their three losses.
Against a defense like Louisville, IU’s problem with turnovers comes to the forefront.
“We need to keep making simple decisions and sometimes make them just a little bit sooner than what we do,” Crean said. “Just hit the open man. I know it sounds trite, but it’s the absolute truth. Just hit the open man when he’s open. We’re pretty good when we do that.”
