Louisville basketball punishes Virginia again

Took a while, much too long, sandwiched between unbelievable turmoil and six different coaches over the past eight seasons. But this year’s University of Louisville basketball team has ended the inexplicable dominance of Virginia in the series.

Louisville made a statement that should be clearly understood in Charlottesville, Virginia, defeating the Cavaliers 81-67 in front of a crowd of 18,233 at the KFC Yum! Center.  It was the second straight win over the visitors since a 10-point road victory two weeks ago. The Cardinals led from beginning to end, by as much as 24 points at one juncture. The statement is that Virginia’s dominance of this series is history, it’s over and done.

Virginia was never a natural rival anyway. The Atlantic Coast Conference merely substitute Louisville for Maryland when the Terrapins left the ACC for the Big Ten Conference in 2014. UofL was so happy to be in one of the Big Five conferences at the time that the conference rivalry designation was a slight irritation. What did have an effect was the fact that UV kept wining game after game, year after year, in the basketball series.

The most humiliating defeat of all would come against No. 1-ranked Virginia during the 2017-18 season. Louisville would somehow lose a game under Coach David Padgett in which it led by four points with one second on the clock.  First, Virginia would hit a two free throws after a pointless UofL foul. Then Deng Adell would foolishly run the baseline, giving Virginia control of the ball. The Cavaliers would then connect on a 3-pointer for 67-66 win. That loss probably sealed Padgett’s fate as a one-time interim coach at Louisville.

The point is there has been lots of humiliation for UofL  in a series in which it has won only six times in 30 games. Louisville has a lot of catching up to do, and it has begun under first-year Louisville Coach Pat Kelsey. If things continue the way they have begun, Virginia will be paying penance for many years from now.

Pat Kelsey taking the win in stride, despite the significance of the regular-season sweep over the Cavaliers.

They’re a good team, and they’re going to continue to get better and better and be a force as we approach conference tournament time and things like that,” he said. “But I thought our guys responded to that. Offensively, we got off to a good start – we were able to get into rhythm even though they were trying to really pressure us and not let us move to our spots. I thought our screening was good, our actions were good. We were able to generate some open shots early on and really got going and that great start helped a lot. I thought the crowd was phenomenal.”

Kelsey added,” It’s such a factor and it was a great, great atmosphere today, so a big shoutout to our fanbase. I think our defense continues to be our calling card throughout the course of this winning streak. I think everybody knows we can really score the ball. Our guys are playing in rhythm, connected, really understanding their roles, and the concepts are just second-nature now, but the thing that’s been carrying us has been our defense and we’ve got to continue to guard at this level.”

Reyne Smith led the Cardinals with 19 points and connected on four three-pointers, while Terrence Edwards added 16 points and six rebounds.  J’Vonne Hadley had 13 points and James Scott chipped in with his third career double-double with12 points and 10 rebounds.

The series no longer that much fun for Virginia. Things are getting back to normal in Louisville.