Louisville Trounces Tepid Tech

Undermanned And Overwhelmed, Yellow Jackets Fall, 79-51.

Louisville coach Chris Mack said he wanted to make sure his guys played hard on Saturday, knowing as they did that host Georgia Tech would be without 3 of their top 9 players. What precisely Mack told his charges, we don’t know. But it certainly worked. The Yellow Jackets won the tip and held a very brief 2-0 lead when James Banks hit a short put-back for the game’s first points. From that point forward, it was all Cardinals. They scored in every manner- long range, transition, in the paint–you name it. And they clamped down on Tech’s tepid offense so thoroughly that the margin reached 36-7 with 5 minutes left in the first half. Tech used a relative scoring binge to make it 43-16 at the half. If this had been a prize fight, it would have been stopped much earlier and the promoter might have been shamed. The short-handed home team simply had no answers on this day.

Playing along with the fact that Louisville is home to a fairly famous horse race each spring, the halftime entertainment at McCamish on Saturday featured a “Diaper Derby”. One infant crawled out early, kept a steady pace and easily won the contest by a healthy distance . Even with his dominant win, this “derby” supplied more drama here than did the main event, which Louisville won by a margin that would have made Secretariat proud.

The undermanned Tech team showed up to a full McCamish Pavilion to take on Louisville, always a worthy opponent and winners of 6 of tbeir last 8. Tech was without 3 of tbeir top 9 players, most importantly missing point guard –and unofficial team motor–Jose Alvarado, out this day with a groin injury. As it turned out, many of the fans were there to see Louisville, a fact noted with gratitude by Mack. The Cardinals may have picked up a few converts on the day as well.

With their coach’s pregame admonition ringing in their ears, the Cardinals jumped out to an early lead and never looked back in this 79-51 win . Following Tech’s James Banks’ opening bucket, the Cardinals built a 10 point lead over the next 5 minutes.

Amazingly, Tech managed only 5 more points over the next 10 minutes–all from Banks. At that point the lead had ballooned to 36-7 and the outcome of the game was long since beyond question.

The main culprit for Lousiville was forward Jordan Nwora who scored 21 in the first half alone. He finished with 25 for the game. The talented sophomore made it look easy and even evoked a bit of post-game envy from Josh Pastner who noted that unlike Louisville, his team does not have …”that guy who can just go get you a bucket.”

Tech had little to choose from on offense, other than going to James Banks inside. At the 9 minute mark, the score was 20 for Louisville, 6 for Banks and nada for the rest of the Tech roster.

Add in 3 traveling calls in 8 minutes against Tech and you have a reliable recipe for a blowout. The Cardinals gladly obliged.

Banks had 9 first-half points for Tech. Devoe added 5 and Evan Cole had 2 and that was it. Among their other first- half offensive woes,Tech hit only 4 of their 8 free throws and went 0-6 from 3-point range. On far too many possessions, they would take the clock down to the waning seconds before forcing a shot or hatching a turnover. Tech was 6 of 24 on first half field goals , contrasted with Louisville’s 50% rate (17 of 34) including 3 treys from Nwora.

Along with Alvarado, Tech was also missing forward Abdoulaye Gueye (undisclosed injury) and guard Brandon Alston (a personal matter), both out for an undetermined period of time.

Chris Mack expressed respect for Georgia Tech.”They’ve got good defensive numbers….for us to get early stops and get confidence was important” said Louisville’s head coach.

His counterpart Josh Pastner expressed frustration–and resolve.”We were getting stops. We just couldn’t score,” said Tech’s coach. He repeated that he does not know the extent of the problems that made 3 of his players unavailable and so he must turn his focus to Tuesday’s game against Notre Dame. Pastner added that Banks is more effective with Gueye in the lineup and that Devoe likewise is better with Alvarado alongside. “Jose embodies who we are.” he said, adding that Alvarado’s absence “puts a lot on Mike’s (Devoe) shoulders in a game like this, and he’s just a freshman.” Pastner went on to point out his team’s relative youth and inexperience, which will get better only with more playing time. “We’ve got to get old and stay old” is the way he put it.

Banks echoed his coach’s observations, saying ” Jose is a leader. We could have used his toughness out there.” Banks finished with 24 points, but no other Tech player was in double figures.

Pastner noted his team had a better second half offensively. Of course, some of that improvement reflected a lessened intensity by Louisville, given their big lead. Chris Mack gave more than 10 minutes to 9 different players, and used 13 players in all. Pastner went deep into his bench too, but for a different reason. He was desperately looking for any offensive spark–to no avail. In their combined 30-plus minutes, usual reserves Shembari Phillips, Sylvester Ogbonda and Kristian Sjolund produced only a single point for Georgia Tech.

Still, Pastner found hope in the person of Nwora, the Cardinal shooter who had just savaged his defense. “We are young. We will be older next year. Look at Jordan Nwora. He is much better as a sophomore,” said Tech’s head man. Each of those statements is true, of course, but it was difficult to fathom that this was a Tech team that had beaten Syracuse decisively on the road only a week earlier. If those wild gyrations in offensive production continue, Pastner may end up aging more rapidly than his young team.

The next stretch of Tech’s schedule is not friendly to a team whose offensive prowess has gone from relatively weak to wholly unpredictable thanks to the loss of key players. Notre Dame visits McCamish on Tuesday. Games against Duke, UNC and Florida State follow. Tech fans are hoping for a quick return by Alvarado and mates so that the promise briefly born of that impressive win at Syracuse can perhaps be found once more.

Patrick Conarro

RamblinSports.com