Slow start dooms Louisville in 89-80 loss at Arkansas

A dismal first half proved to be too much for Louisville to overcome as the Cardinals fell 89-80 at No. 25 Arkansas Wednesday night.

U of L trailed by 18 points at halftime and by as many as 20 after the break as old nemesis John Calipari proved that he still seems to have the Cards’ number.

It was a combination of poor rebounding, poor outside shooting, poor defense, and a large free-throw disparity that doomed Louisville to its first loss. The Cards were out-rebounded by 10 and gave Arkansas a whopping 18 second chance opportunities. They also connected on just 8-of-37 three-point attempts, and were outscored 27-14 at the charity stripe.

While all of those things were troubling, the most worrying aspect of Louisville’s effort Wednesday night was its total inability to stop Arkansas’ dribble penetration.

With 8:39 to go in the game, a J’Vonne Hadley lay-in cut the Razorbacks’ once 20-point lead all the way down to five. The life was completely sucked out of Bud Walton Arena, and the visitors had all the momentum in the world. Louisville then let Arkansas score on 10 of its final 12 possessions. Ball game.

The offense certainly wasn’t perfect tonight, but I’m not overly concerned about the offense (keep getting downhill, Mikel). If these guys don’t dedicate themselves to getting better at staying in front of the ball, they’re not going to play as deep into March as they’re hoping to. It’s that simple.

The near loss to Eastern Kentucky just before New Year’s served as the lightbulb moment for last year’s team. That was the moment when Terrence Edwards and company came to the realization that if they didn’t up their dedication on the defensive end, they weren’t going to be able to reach the heights they were hoping to hit. Hopefully that same realization gets through to this group about a month earlier.