LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB+WAVE) — Before we get carried away, a reminder: Louisville’s 89-83 victory over Kansas Wednesday night doesn’t count.
It’s an exhibition. It won’t help the No. 11-ranked Cardinals’ NCAA Tournament résumé, improve their NET ranking or show up in the standings. We (meaning I) should not overstate anything learned in this game.
It is, officially, meaningless.
But here’s another thing that’s true: There is no such thing as a bad night to win at Allen Fieldhouse.
Especially when you do it against a No. 17-ranked Kansas team, after taking a punch early, and with the distinct impression that your own team is only beginning to figure out what it can become.
Pat Kelsey brought a rebuilt Louisville team into one of college basketball’s most intimidating buildings and watched it do something that good teams do.
It responded.
Kansas jumped out to a 15-8 lead. Louisville trailed by one at halftime. Then the Cardinals scored 53 second-half points, built a double-digit lead and held off a late Kansas charge.
And they did it with some unexpected contributions.
You can’t overreact to October basketball. But you don’t have to pretend you didn’t see what you saw, either.
A few things worth noticing:
Jackson Shelstad remembered how to shoot.
The Oregon transfer made just one of nine three-point attempts during Louisville’s summer trip to the Bahamas.
He apparently left that shooting slump somewhere in the Caribbean.
Shelstad scored 23 points Wednesday, including five three-pointers, and looked like the kind of offensive weapon Kelsey envisioned when he brought him to Louisville.
He scored 16 in the second half, when Louisville began to separate itself from the Jayhawks.
And it wasn’t just the shooting. Shelstad played with confidence, created offense and gave Louisville a dependable scoring option when it needed one.
Louisville has plenty of players capable of scoring. What it needs is somebody who can take over a stretch of a game.
Shelstad showed he can be that guy.
Obinna Ekezie Jr. is going to make it difficult not to overreact.
Here’s your obligatory October disclaimer: He’s a freshman. He’s going to make mistakes. He’s going to have difficult nights. Nobody should start fitting him for an NBA uniform after one exhibition.
Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, good grief.
Ekezie, the 7-foot-2 freshman, was a revelation.
He scored 17 points, made four three-pointers and blocked five shots. He looked comfortable around the basket, comfortable beyond the arc and distinctly uncomfortable for Kansas players trying to score over him.
It’s one thing to have a 7-footer who can protect the rim. It’s another to have one who can step outside and make defenses respect his shooting.
Ekezie did both.
And if you’re Kelsey, the most exciting part might be what happens when he learns more about playing at this level.
There is a lot of basketball ahead of him. But there’s also an awful lot to work with.
Louisville took a punch and punched back.
Kansas came out with energy. The Jayhawks made shots, fed off the crowd and put Louisville in an early hole. The Cardinals didn’t panic. They gradually worked their way back, trailed just 37-36 at halftime and then came out firing.
Adrian Wooley hit two early second-half threes. Alvaro Folgueiras added another. Shelstad got rolling. Suddenly Louisville wasn’t just surviving at Allen Fieldhouse. It was dictating the game.
The Cardinals eventually led by 11.
Kansas made its inevitable run, cutting the margin to two in the final minute. But Louisville made enough plays and free throws to finish the job.
That matters. Not in the standings, but in the development of a team still learning to play together.
It’s easy to look good when everything goes right. It’s more instructive to see how a team responds when things go wrong.
Louisville passed that early test.
Flory Bidunga didn’t score much. He still mattered.
There will be nights when Louisville needs Bidunga to provide a meaningful offensive presence.
Wednesday wasn’t one of them.
The Kansas transfer scored just five points against his former team. He had foul trouble and never really established himself as an offensive force.
But his defense made a difference. Bidunga challenged shots, provided resistance around the rim and gave Louisville the kind of athletic interior presence it was missing at times last season.
And here’s something worth considering: Louisville scored 89 points at Kansas without needing a big offensive night from one of its most important players.
That’s a pretty encouraging development.
It’s also worth watching how Kelsey uses Bidunga and Ekezie together. Both can protect the rim. Ekezie’s outside shooting gives Louisville some intriguing possibilities.
Kelsey wanted more size and athleticism. He certainly has it.
There was plenty of offense. And plenty to clean up.
For all the talk about defense coming into the game, Louisville won with offense. It 48.3% from the field and made 14 of 30 three-pointers. Half of the Cards’ shots were from three. Four players made multiple threes.
That’s a lot of firepower, particularly on the road against Kansas.
The Cardinals also got useful contributions from Seth Trimble, who scored 12 points, and De’Shayne Montgomery, who added nine. Wooley and Folgueiras each made timely three-pointers.
But this wasn’t a finished product.
Kansas scored 46 points in the paint to Louisville’s 20. The Jayhawks made a late push after Louisville appeared to have control. And there were moments when the Cardinals’ offense still looked like a collection of talented players learning one another’s tendencies.
That’s exactly what they are.
The encouraging thing is that Louisville has several ways to score, several players who can change a game and enough depth that a quiet night from one or two of them doesn’t have to become a crisis.
The defensive details will need work. So will the consistency.
But Kelsey has some interesting options.
The bottom line.
It’s an exhibition win, nothing more.
But the Cardinals went into Allen Fieldhouse, absorbed an early punch, found some answers and walked out winners.
They discovered a little more about Shelstad. They discovered quite a bit about Ekezie. They won without much offense from Bidunga.
And they showed signs of becoming a team rather than merely a collection of new players.
There are worse things to discover in October.
The game didn’t count. The experience does.
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