What happened in Louisville?
In college basketball, every win and loss counts and a team can rarely go on a losing streak on the caliber that Louisville has and walk away feeling good about it, especially when there is a healthy handful of teams that now have a better win-loss record than you.
The question to ask at this point is did Syracuse simply kick off a rut for Louisville, or is there a more serious problem with the Cards?
Some sports analysts have pointed to a lack of veteran leadership in Louisville as the primary reason for their skid. To me, to write off the Cards fall from the top as a lack of leadership is too vague of an answer and is barely above shrugging your shoulders and saying “I don’t know.â€Lack of leadership is not a wrong answer, but I think it is more of an issue of youth than leadership. Peyton Siva is often looked at as the de facto leader of the Cardinals. Siva, though, has made some huge late game mistakes as of late that has essentially cost Louisville there trio of losses.
Louisville fans have no reason to completely panic yet. In March, Louisville will be a major contender. However, they will continue to fall short of they do not focus on minimizing mistakes caused by a lack of experience.
However, the Cards last few losses have had a major impact. They have seen their status in the top 25 drop from the top of the list to being well outside the top ten. The AP poll has them ranked 12th in the nation while the Coaches Poll has them ranked 13th. While Bovada will not be releasing updated future odds until tomorrow, one can expect to see the Cardinals National Championship odds to have plummeted in a similar manner.
The Cardinals upcoming schedule is not an easy one, either.  They cannot afford many more losses, if any, and they have games with Marquette, Notre Dame, Syracuse and Cincinnati on the horizon.
Louisville are going to have to solve their problems sooner rather than later.
