Friday night the Cardinals will return to the hardwood for the first time after losing their first game of the season. This game can be seen at 7pm on WHAS 11 locally or on ESPN3. The Cardinals will be looking to start a new winning streak when they do battle with the Southern Miss Golden Eagles. This will be the 42nd meeting between these teams and Louisville holds the series lead 30 to 11. The last time these teams played was on Jan. 11, 2005, in Hattiesburg and it was the Cards who won that game 107-62. Southern Miss comes into this game 6-0 and were picked to finish first in Conference USA.
The head coach of the Golden Eagles will be a familiar face to Louisville fans and one that brings back some not so good memories. Southern Miss Coach Donnie Tyndall and his then Morehead State team knocked our Cardinals out of the NCAA Tournament three seasons ago in one of the biggest upsets in Cardinal history. Now Coach Tyndall and his prowess has Southern Miss back on the right track. A season ago Tyndall did a masterful job of blending the old with the new mixing new players with returning starters and getting them to all buy into his system and begin building the program. This season he has a group of transfers giving him some good minutes. Aaron Brown (11.7 points, 2.8 rebounds, 1.2 assist) who transferred from Temple is a good scorer and a lanky defender who can get into passing lanes. He is leading the team in scoring this season. Chip Armelin (5.2 points, 2 rebounds, 0.6 assist) the transfer from Minnesota is providing great back-up minutes at the guard spot. He’s a good ball handler and tough rebounder. Matt Bingaya (5.8 points, 2.5 rebounds) and Ude Ifeanyichukwa (0.8 points, 0.8 rebounds) give them size, quality, and depth on the wing. Ude was ranked as a top-80 prospect by JucoRecruiting.com.
Southern Miss does return four players who started at least ten games last season. Neil Watson (10.7 points, 2.8 rebounds, 3.5 assist) and Jerrold Brooks 9.2 points, 2.2 rebounds, 3 assist) are back for their senior seasons in the back-court. Both put up offensive ratings that topped 113, and Watson’s 59 eFG was in the national top 70 last season. Both of these guys are great outside shooters. In the front court Michael Craig (9.8 points, 6.2 rebounds) a 6-foot-5 swing-man can fill up a stat sheet fast, and Daveon Boardingham (10.5 points, 5.2 rebounds) a former junior college transfer is an efficient scorer in the paint and will be asked to take more shots as a senior. He had an offensive rating near 116 and an offensive rebounding rate in the top 100 last season.
This Southern Miss team is going to come at our Cards with a potent mix of turnover-forcing zone defense (a plus 4.5 turnover margin with 8.8 steals per game) and even better offense (shooting 48% from the field, .386% from 3pt line and .663% from free throw line, averaging 12.7 assists).
Southern Miss
2013-14 OVERALL RANKINGS
-POINTS PER GAME
74.0
193rd
OVERALL
-REBOUNDS PER GAME
34.5
237th
OVERALL
-ASSISTS PER GAME
12.7
189th
OVERALL
-FIELD GOAL PCT
.482
74th
OVERALL
Kenpom Ranks
Overall – #72
Defense Adjustment Efficiency
-98.2 ranks 63rd
Offensive Adjustment Efficiency
-107.7 ranks 83rd
It will be the day after Thanksgiving and we will all be full of turkey. I will still be hungry for another Cardinal win and will be watching to see if this group can be more mentally and physically better on the defensive end of the floor this time out. This will be a good test and the Golden Eagles offense will challenge the Louisville transition defense. They will get up and down the court. Scoring hasn’t been an issue for the Louisville backcourt but the front-court offense disappeared last weekend. Will Harrell, Behanan, and Mango have better games this week? More importantly will Wayne Blackshear get his head out of the sand and get things back on the right track? This team has had a week in the practice gym and I hope to see some positives from that Friday night. It will be a good test coming off a loss and I think the Cards will send November out on a winning note.