Louisville Cardinals Heading in the Wrong Direction
The No. 12 ranked Louisville Cardinals have lost two straight games. On February 14, the Cardinals were defeated by the North Carolina State Wolfpack and on February 18 by the Syracuse Orange.
Following Louisville’s loss of 69-59 to Syracuse, Terry Rozier said his team was not playing the type of defense that helped the Cardinals become the 2013 National Champions and college hoops winningest program over the last four seasons.
Rozier said the team was not taking enough defensively or working together and he said it was time for the team to have a meeting.
He said he would speak to teammate Montrezl Harrell and call a players only meeting to figure how they can come together better on defense. Harrell, who just recently stepped down voluntarily as team captain, is sill the unquestionable leader of the team and he agreed with teammate Rozier about needing a team meeting.
Harrell warned that with a few more losses the Cardinals could be a bubble team just to make it into the tournament.
The defensive issues at Louisville are well chronicled. The lack of creating turnovers has driven Rick Pitino the Cardinals coach mad. Following Wednesday’s loss Pitino said the team’s goal for deflections per game is 35 and the team had just 18 versus Syracuse.
Rozier said that the past few years the defense for Louisville has led the nation in steals, but now the defense could not force any team to turn the ball over. That is why Rozier said he had to speak with Harrell to set up a much needed heart to heart meeting with the players to talk defense.
Jones Reinstated
On a separate note, Pitino announced that the suspension of Chris Jones the Louisville guard for violating team rules had been lifted. The Louisville head coach said the senior guard had met his reinstatement conditions.
A spokesperson for the basketball program said that Pitino said Jones had done what was needed and his suspension was lifted.
The suspension was lifted a day after Louisville lost to Syracuse its third loss in the past four games. On Thursday, Pitino announced that Jones would be back with the team for Saturday’s game against Miami.
Quentin Snider a freshman who took Jones’ place scored 13 point against Syracuse.
Jones leads Louisville with 3.6 assists per game while he is third in team scoring at 13.5 points per game.
