Louisville's basketball juggernaut kept on rolling Tuesday night and coach Pat Kelsey was full of praise for his team following its dominating 72-59 victory over Wake Forest during which the No. 21 Cardinals (16-5, 9-1) enjoyed a 29-point lead early in the second half.
"We're just clicking," Kelsey said "You can just feel it. We have a lot of momentum. We're playing well together. Our offense is in a great rhythm and then they're really guarding. I thought our guys played 30-32 minutes, at times, as good of basketball that we have played all year.
"There is a movement going on with our team from a defensive perspective. It starts in the minds and hearts of each guy in a Louisville jersey. It matters getting stops. It matters taking care of assignments. It matters picking up for a mistake by your teammate. Defense is an attitude. And our guys have been playing with a little bit of a chip on their shoulders for the better part of the last month and a half."
But hold on. That doesn't mean Kelsey doesn't see a need to stay on top of things and reiterate what he has emphasized to his players throughout the season before their next outing at Georgia Tech Saturday afternoon.
This is why: Wake (15-6, 7-3) ended the game on an 18-5 run, which included scoring the final 11 points, and outscored U of L 38-27 in the second half to snap a streak of 15 consecutive halves that the Cards had outscored their opponents. During the final 20 minutes, the home team shot just 6-of-24, while the Deamon Deacons were 15-of-29.
"No matter what the score is, if you're up 20, 25 or 27, when we get to those media timeouts the first question I always ask is 'what's the score? They all say 'zero to zero' and we're just trying to win the next four-minute segment. Typically, our team is really good in that regard."
Not this time. At the under four-minute media timeout, the Cards were ahead 72-51. In fact, U of L was scoreless for the final 5 minutes and were outscored 18-7 in the last eight minutes. However, Kelsey's disappointment was tempered with an opportunity.
"It's good to have some teachable moments and some things we can clean up late in the game," he said. "I thought we generated some open shots. We couldn't get any to go down, and I felt like it kind of affected our defense a little bit, and that hasn't been the case. It's good I can have a little bit of an aggressive counseling session with them (Wednesday) at practice."
Kelsey checked off the Cards' shortcomings after the final timeout that he will address.
"We gave up an offensive rebound off a free throw, which is a cardinal sin. I mean, it drives me nuts. We had back-to-back plays where we didn't block out and (Wake) got second shots. That's just not what we're about. I don't care what the score is, it's not acceptable. So we can learn from it and we'll be better moving forward."
It's pretty certain that by this time in the season the players know what to expect from the so-called "counseling" session.
"PK, he just doesn't stop," guard Reyne Smith said. "We definitely took our foot off the gas, and we've got to pride ourselves on finishing games strong. No one takes it harder than ourselves as a team and the coaches end up having to remind us, like, 'We won. Be happy about winning.' But yeah, no one takes more pride in finishing like we usually do, especially with that kind of lead. We've got to finish strong."
With the victory, Louisville completed a perfect January, going 8-0. The last time a U of L team did that was in 2009 on its way to a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament under Rick Pitino.
The Cards haven't lost since Dec. 14, 93-85, against Kentucky. Eight of their nine ACC victories have come by double digits and an average of 16.6 points. The odds look good for their winning streak to reach 13 because their next three games will be against teams with a combined league record of 4-24, starting with Georgia Tech (3-7) in Atlanta, followed by another road trip to Boston College (1-8) on Feb. 5 and a return home to play Miami (0-9) on Feb. 8.
"Pat has a really nice deep team that can really shoot it, play hard defensively and have great cohesiveness," Wake coach Steve Forbes said. "I think they are going to finish strong in this league would be my guess."
That seems like a pretty good guess heading into the second half of the ACC season.
Louisville guard J'Vonne Hadley (1) goes up for a layup over Wake Forest forward Tre'Von Spillers (25) during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in Louisville, Ky., Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)
