The Louisville Cardinals played their worst game of the season and the Virginia Cavaliers played one of their best, it’s as simple as that. Even from the very beginning, Louisville looked like the more inexperienced team and didn’t have answer for anything UVA did. Virginia did the little things defensively that allowed them to win so convincingly. Louisville’s Chinanu Onuaku had the stomach flu and everything just seemed different. The only silver lining was Deng Adel playing his best game of the season. Regardless of that, here’s how Louisville got rocked against the Cavaliers.

“If you’re not close to them defensively, you have no chance of beating them,” said Rick Pitino.

That statement couldn’t be more true for Louisville. Virginia played fantastic defense for 40 minutes while Louisville looked more focused on trying to figure out how to score. In the first half, Louisville had 13 TO’s while Damion Lee and Trey Lewis combined for zero points. That’s absolutely unacceptable for this team and was a big reason why they only scored 14 first half points. London Perrantes was able to make Lewis uncomfortable and Anthony Gill dominated the paint with aggression. Not a single player could match the intensity of Gill on the defensive end. Virginia’s defense was just incredible at stopping what Louisville did and there is nothing to hide behind when that happens.

The officiating for this game was some of the worst that this writer has seen in a college basketball game point blank. Everyone hates that one guy who always blames things on the officials but there were a ton of missed calls that went Virginia’s way. Pitino even pointed out how physical the refs were allowing both teams to play but the difference was that Louisville didn’t play with the same intensity. It was obvious with the way Gill fought harder than anyone else for the loose balls and the confidence Malcolm Brogdon showed in every shot he took. The crowd tore into the refs all game but at the end, that’s just another excuse for Louisville’s lack of effort on both ends of the court.

Louisville played much better in the 2nd half scoring 33 points but the first half was just too much to overcome. They have a short week as the North Carolina Tar Heels come into town on Monday. Mangok Mathiang was out for the Cardinals and that continues to hurt because of him being one of the captains. UVA coach Tony Bennett even joked and said that when he shook Mathiang’s hand during the pregame line, he said “I still remember what you did last time." At the end of the day, UVA just outplayed Louisville in every facet of the game.

Leading Scorers: Louisville (Spalding & Adel 12 points) Virginia (Gill & Brogdon 13 points)

Next Games: Louisville - North Carolina (Feb. 1) Virginia - Boston College (Feb. 3)