I'm a Louisville fan, here's our scouting report, ask me anything...

[vancedave56]

Turnovers against HAVOC were single digits...on their home court.

[KC Shox]

I'm not going to act like I'm a shocker enthusiast and can tell you how your guards will handle the press, but I can talk about other teams. Phil Pressey was made a fool of, he's an elite NBA caliber point guard. He couldnt stop turning the ball over. Oregon averaged 15 turnovers a game and we couldn't mount anything against them (they're also very speedy). We had more turnovers than they did iirc. This is where coaching is imperative. Oregon practiced against 6 players and still had trouble simulating it. You're going to have trouble in bounding, once you get it inbounded, you have to cross half court, once you cross half court, you have to deal with the Frankenstein bastardization of whatever defense is being ran. Teams that do well have long players who handle the ball well and make good decisions. If you have multiple ball handlers (and I think you have a few players capable of running the point), and some good front court players who aren't afraid to bring the ball across half court, WSU can limit their turnovers, if not, it could be a long day.

I'll admit, I was thoroughly unimpressed with how Wichita handled Ohio state when they started to full court press. I don't know if that's indicative of how Wichita State handles it against Louisville or how theyve handled pass presses, but Louisville will do that for 40 minutes and much more efficiently than OSU did it.

By the sounds of it, the Shox might as well not show up. Of course the NCAA would frown on such an attempt, so I guess they'll just have to go out and test your press. I don't give a damn if the Shox win by getting a controversial/blown ref call that allows them to hit game winning free throws with .1 second left. As long as we continue to advance that's all that matters to me. You may be right, and the press turns out to be too much for us and we get blown away by 30. But the Cards are not perfect or else their season record would reflect that. In the infamous words of Auhnuld, "If it bleeds, we can kill it"

[shoxlax]

Does the Ville press after missed shots?

[RoyalShock]

What do you mean, African or European swallow?

:good:

[another shocker]

I'm not going to act like I'm a shocker enthusiast and can tell you how your guards will handle the press, but I can talk about other teams. Phil Pressey was made a fool of, he's an elite NBA caliber point guard. He couldnt stop turning the ball over. Oregon averaged 15 turnovers a game and we couldn't mount anything against them (they're also very speedy). We had more turnovers than they did iirc. This is where coaching is imperative. Oregon practiced against 6 players and still had trouble simulating it. You're going to have trouble in bounding, once you get it inbounded, you have to cross half court, once you cross half court, you have to deal with the Frankenstein bastardization of whatever defense is being ran. Teams that do well have long players who handle the ball well and make good decisions. If you have multiple ball handlers (and I think you have a few players capable of running the point), and some good front court players who aren't afraid to bring the ball across half court, WSU can limit their turnovers, if not, it could be a long day.

I'll admit, I was thoroughly unimpressed with how Wichita handled Ohio state when they started to full court press. I don't know if that's indicative of how Wichita State handles it against Louisville or how theyve handled pass presses, but Louisville will do that for 40 minutes and much more efficiently than OSU did it.

well, suffice it to say, wichita state has much better handles than duke does. that's all. there you go.

[Joneildu]

Let me address some things. First, Louisville isn't perfect. Neither was UK last season. No one has been for, what, 30 years? Louisville has also avenged every loss they've had a chance to avenge...and decisively. I was asked to talk about the press and I did. If you're going to ask me a question about one of the best aspects of the best defense in the nation, don't get your panties bundled up when I say that it's pretty good.

Now I've seen VCU brought up a few times. For the first 45 feet, it's probably a good comparison. If you could get the ball up on VCU, you can probably cross half court against Louisville. The difference is in the half court. VCU had a pretty mediocre half court that ranked about 30-40 in terms of efficiency. Louisville generates a lot of turnovers in the half court. The press isn't used to simply turn you over, I discussed this in the OP. Turnovers are simply a bonus. Edit. No one knew passing lanes or had the length that Ware had. Louisville lost a major contributor in half court defense.

I'll give you an example of something you don't see in a box score that is a direct result of the press. Louisville has had, over the past 5ish seasons, the best free throw defense. That's a real thing and its not a coincidence. Louisville takes your legs out.

[another shocker]

Let me address some things. First, Louisville isn't perfect. Neither was UK last season. No one has been for, what, 30 years? Louisville has also avenged every loss they've had a chance to avenge...and decisively. I was asked to talk about the press and I did. If you're going to ask me a question about one of the best aspects of the best defense in the nation, don't get your panties bundled up when I say that it's pretty good.

Now I've seen VCU brought up a few times. For the first 45 feet, it's probably a good comparison. If you could get the ball up on VCU, you can probably cross half court against Louisville. The difference is in the half court. VCU had a pretty mediocre half court that ranked about 30-40 in terms of efficiency. Louisville generates a lot of turnovers in the half court. The press isn't used to simply turn you over, I discussed this in the OP. Turnovers are simply a bonus.

I'll give you an example of something you don't see in a box score that is a direct result of the press. Louisville has had, over the past 5ish seasons, the best free throw defense. That's a real thing and its not a coincidence. Louisville takes your legs out.

and don't get your panties twisted when you have to find out that wichita state takes care of the ball better than anybody in the ncaa tournament this year. you can point to a game here or there, osu included, but wichita state is full court press ready. oh, yes. the best against the best.

while we're at it, wichita state has the best defense in the final four. you must have been listening to those talking/writing heads if you believe any different.

[ABC]

I'm not going to act like I'm a shocker enthusiast and can tell you how your guards will handle the press, but I can talk about other teams. Phil Pressey was made a fool of, he's an elite NBA caliber point guard. He couldnt stop turning the ball over. Oregon averaged 15 turnovers a game and we couldn't mount anything against them (they're also very speedy). We had more turnovers than they did iirc. This is where coaching is imperative. Oregon practiced against 6 players and still had trouble simulating it. You're going to have trouble in bounding, once you get it inbounded, you have to cross half court, once you cross half court, you have to deal with the Frankenstein bastardization of whatever defense is being ran. Teams that do well have long players who handle the ball well and make good decisions. If you have multiple ball handlers (and I think you have a few players capable of running the point), and some good front court players who aren't afraid to bring the ball across half court, WSU can limit their turnovers, if not, it could be a long day.

I'll admit, I was thoroughly unimpressed with how Wichita handled Ohio state when they started to full court press. I don't know if that's indicative of how Wichita State handles it against Louisville or how theyve handled pass presses, but Louisville will do that for 40 minutes and much more efficiently than OSU did it.

Pressey averaged almost four turn overs per game . . . so maybe not a highlight of UL's defense.

OSU's press didn't cause a lot of turnovers - so we seemed to do okay.

[ShockTalk]

Pressey averaged almost four turn overs per game . . . so maybe not a highlight of UL's defense.

OSU's press didn't cause a lot of turnovers - so we seemed to do okay.

Pressey averaged 3.5 to be more exact. He had 8 against Louisville.

[Joneildu]

and don't get your panties twisted when you have to find out that wichita state takes care of the ball better than anybody in the ncaa tournament this year. you can point to a game here or there, osu included, but wichita state is full court press ready. oh, yes. the best against the best.

while we're at it, wichita state has the best defense in the final four. you must have been listening to those talking/writing heads if you believe any different.

No, I'm going to tangible data. http://www.kenpom.com

You should lower your level of mad. I was answering a question. If you're going to get offended, don't ask the question or read the reply. Or read the thread for that matter if you can't handle opposing perspectives.

[MadaboutWu]

Thanks for this scouting report.

My questions: what do you think are Louisville's biggest weaknesses?
What did teams do well that beat Louisville or pushed them hard? (forgive me for pointing out that you have kind of dodged that question by stating that they simply played well or that UL didn't have its same personnel or is now better).

[SB Shock]

Pitt simply showed up. Don't let them fool you, they are a very good team. They were top 10 in Kenpom. However, Jamie Dixon has a reputation for sucking hard in the post season. Google it. Mike Brey and Jamie Dixon cannot play post season basketball. That's not a shot at you as much of an acknowledgment of history.

Idk, over the last 11 years - 4x1st round wins, 4xSweet 16, 1xElite8 is hardly "cannot play post season basketball"

Dieng was out against Illinois State, but honestly, they and NIU just played well.

UNI actually didn't play well against Louisville on the offensive end, had they shot well they would have beaten Louisville by double digits. In fact they turned the ball over 22 times. I'm just wondering what UNI did on the defensive end to cause so many Louisville turnovers and to shoot so bad. Actually looking at the box score it is a wonder that UNI was even in the game as bad as they turned it over and how terrible they got out rebounded.

I can see why ISUR gave Louisville problems just with Carmichael and Brown having good games. They probably would have beaten Louisville except Carmichael hadn't perfected Hong Kong Phooey move yet.

[Joneildu]

Thanks for this scouting report.

My questions: what do you think are Louisville's biggest weaknesses?
What did teams do well that beat Louisville or pushed them hard? (forgive me for pointing out that you have kind of dodged that question by stating that they simply played well or that UL didn't have its same personnel or is now better).

Mid range and perimeter shooting. Very weak shooting team.

Teams that do well protect the ball and make Louisville shoot jumpers. If you go look at those games, I'll guess that Louisville shot under 35%. Before about February, Louisville had one of the lowest percentages of points in the paint. Now they score willingly in the paint. It's an adjustment the team has improved greatly on and a huge reason Louisville has went from about the 25th rated team in offensive efficiency to the 5th rated team.

[Jamar Howard 4 President]

Reading this thread, I was almost convinced I had mistakenly visited a BCS team's board. Come on guys, don't turn into arrogant, ignorant jerks already

[Joneildu]

Pitt has had very highly rated teams. Four trips out of the first weekend in 11 years is not great when they've had the talent they've had. Here's a good write up on their post season performance vs their regular season play. They just aren't meeting expectations.

http://bebballreportpitt.blogspot.com/2010/04/gauging-jamie-dixons-postseason-success.html