Louisville's Depth and Unselfishness on Full Display Against Memphis

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Louisville men's basketball program completed the rivalry trifecta on Saturday, and they did so in fairly dominant fashion.

Having already captured both a convincing win over Kentucky and a comeback victory over Cincinnati earlier this season, this time, it was Memphis' turn to take on the Cardinals. However, the Tigers offered very little resistance, with UofL leading by as much as 30 and eventually coasting to a 99-73 victory.

Typically in college basketball, whenever a team comes close to cracking 100 points, it's usually because at least one person is single-handedly taking over the game and putting that team on their back. But in Louisville's showdown with Memphis, that actually was not the case.

Entering year two under head coach Pat Kelsey, Louisville was lauded as a team who could be one of the deepest rosters in the entire sport - especially in the backcourt. Against Memphis, this depth was on full display, in part due to the players being completely bought in to a team-first culture.

"Everybody raised the level of play when you come in," Kelsey said. "You don't want guys off the bench to just maintain the status quo. Our depth is one of our great assets as a team, but our players embrace it. Aly (Khalifa) didn't play as many minutes today, but man was he unbelievable on the sideline cheering Zou [Vangelis Zougris] on as he went on and gave us some big minutes, and gave us a boost. KP [Kasean Pryor], he came in, gave us a huge boost, got the crowd going, dyed his hair again, made three threes. Did what KP does. J'Vonne Hadley and Khani (Rooths) are over there cheering their butt off for him.

"It's power of the unit. It's the uncommon commitment to the guy next to you. It breaks human nature, but it's something that we take such pride in. We recruit individuals that are about that, and then we protect that culture every single day, and it was on display there tonight."

Louisville's ball movement was some of the best it had been all season, and it showed in the final box score. The Cardinals assisted on 24 of their 30 made field goals, which tied for their most assists this season - although the other two instances came against Jackson State and NJIT.

This unselfish play, as Kelsey alluded, helped to raise the capabilities of every player on the court. By the time the final buzzer sounded, six players for Louisville finished in double figures scoring, doing so for the second time this season. What makes this even more impressive is that no player cracked the 20-point threshold.

It was also a game in which multiple players found their shooting stroke all at once. In fact, six different Cards made multiple three-point tries, and four different players made at least three. It was just the second time in program history that they had six players hit multiple threes in a single game.

"I think it's extremely fun," forward Khani Rooths said of Louisville's depth and unselfishness. "We all want to see each other win. Whenever we got our time to shine, we're gonna take it. Then when it's our partner's time to shine, we gonna root them on and just keep on going. It's contagious, and y'all can see."

Louisville's team-wide commitment to winning is not only apparent from how they play, but also by how they respond to coaching.

Approaching the midway point of the second half, Louisville had firm control of the game, but looked like they were starting to let go of the rope some with sloppy play. After Memphis cut the deficit to 22 on with 10:55 following an easy layup, Kelsey called a timeout and berated star point guard Mikel Brown Jr., whose one-legged jumper was blocked to set up the Tigers fast break.

Memphis was able to get a layup on their next possession, but that was as close as they got to potentially mounting a comeback, as Louisville put together a proper response down the stretch. Brown not only finished with 16 points, behind only Ryan Conwell's 17, he was all smiles in the postgame after getting chewed out not too long ago.

"What's so awesome about Mikel Brown, is he's that superstar with 8 million stars next to his name, draft status and all this stuff," Kelsey said. "And you can coach that dude hard. Before that one time out, everybody was playing like crap. Everybody was over dribbling, nobody was guarding.

"But you know whose fault it is? It's the point guard's. It's the quarterback on the floor. But you know what, you can coach him hard. He's like, 'Yep, coach, I got you. You're right.' Then he comes out at the end of the game, gives me a big hug and smiles. Y'all know he's a special player, but he's a special kid as well."

Louisville will be back in action on Tuesday when they travel to Knoxville for a ranked matchup with Tennessee. Tip-off against the Volunteers is set for 7:00 p.m. EST.

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