Louisville found out the hard way about the potholes that exist for a team that doesn’t execute at both ends of the court.
Louisville stumbled with an 80-72 overtime loss to Furman on Friday night and the Cardinals must regroup to face a team that already has knocked off one Atlantic Coast Conference team on the road this season.
Navy, which will face its third ACC team in seven nights, visits Louisville for Monday night’s game, having vanquished 25th-ranked Virginia last week.
“I think we all learned a lot about each other,” Cardinals acting coach Mike Pegues said. “The main thing, though, is that we’ve got to do a better job on the things that we work on every day.”
Noah Locke, a transfer from Florida, has led Louisville in scoring in both games. He posted 20 points vs. Furman.
Louisville will aim to begin a new home-court streak. The loss to Furman marked the end of a 59-game home winning streak in games in the month of November.
Pegues is filling in as coach Chris Mack serves a 20-day suspension related to off-court violations that put the Cardinals in trouble with the NCAA.
Pegues wants to determine which lineups are going to work best.
“That’s something that our staff has to come together on and figure out,” he said.
He was troubled that Furman outrebounded Louisville by 43-41.
“We were not tough enough. The glass is a toughness statistic. … We have to be able to own our backboard,” Pegues said. “We have to be able to guard the ball and we have to be in the right place off the ball. I’m going to take responsibility for that.”
The Cardinals had opened with a 72-60 victory over Southern last Tuesday. Noah Locke, a transfer from Florida, has led Louisville in scoring in both games, with 16 against Southern and 20 vs. Furman.
Navy began the season with an upset at Virginia, but followed that with a 77-55 home loss to Virginia Tech on Friday night.
While Pegues said he felt Furman got too many open looks on the perimeter, Navy might not be prone to do a lot of long-range damage. The Midshipmen shot 3-for-25 on 3-pointers in their loss.
“If you’re going to take a shot at a team like that, you have to score the ball and make some open shots,” Navy coach Ed DeChellis said.
The 57 points in the Virginia Tech game would have ranked as the Midshipmen’s second-lowest total of the 2020-21 season, when Navy played 18 games.
DeChellis said the Midshipmen must be prepared for a physical style of play in games against these teams from major conferences.
After the Louisville game, Navy doesn’t have another opponent from a power conference on the schedule, although the Mids do visit Furman next weekend.
–Field Level Media
