Late Game Situational Execution Continuing to Plague Louisville

The Cardinals are continuing to shoot themselves in the foot when game gets to crunch time.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - For everything that the Louisville men's basketball program has gone through this season, it's been hard to deny that they have continued to fight.

The Cardinals and then-No. 9 Duke were tied with roughly eight minutes to go, and that was followed up by taking North Carolina to overtime in their first matchup earlier this month. They also led Notre Dame on the road by one in the final six minutes, and in their next game mounted a late 7-0 run vs. Miami to pull within three in the final minute. Those were all games that came after former head coach Chris Mack and the program mutually decided to part ways.

But then again, there is a reason that Louisville finds themselves at 12-15 on the year and 6-11 in the ACC. There is a reason that they have lost 11 of their last 13 games, including a seven-game skid for their longest losing streak since World War II, and the former head coach leaving town is only part of the equation.

It has been a trend all season long, especially lately, but Louisville has been woefully inept at closing out down the stretch. That tie game against Duke? The Blue Devils immediately fired off a 12-0 run. Overtime vs. UNC? Louisville missed their final three field goals. Notre Dame fired off an 8-0 run after the Cards pulled ahead late, and they also missed three of their final four shots against Miami.

This trend once again reared its ugly head in Louisville's rematch with North Carolina on Monday night. The Cards and Tar Heels were battling all second half, and found themselves trailing by just one with roughly three minutes left. They didn't score a single point during those final three minutes, eventually falling 70-63 at the Dean Dome.

"As I said throughout some of these losses this year, moral victories are not what Louisville Basketball is about," interim head coach Mike Pegues said. "We had to find a way to execute down the stretch on both ends of the floor, and get over the hump and win a game. There are some things offensively and defensively that we all have to do a little better in order for that to happen, especially against against good teams like Carolina."

Being able to play clutch defense no doubt plays a part, but the biggest reason for Louisville's inability to close out a game is that they have developed a tendency to jack up way too many three-point shots. This was on full display in their rematch with the Tar Heels.

Louisville entered the final six minutes tied with UNC at 60. Out of their final nine field goal attempts, seven of them were three-pointers, and only one of them fell. This trend was also very much present in those close losses to Duke, Notre Dame, Miami and their first matchup with Carolina.

What makes this trend even more maddening is that Pegues made slight tweaks to the offense following the blowout loss at Syracuse on Feb. 5. Instead of the pace-and-space offense spearheaded by assistant coach Ross McMains, Louisville was putting and even bigger emphasis on getting paint touches and executing down low.

This approach has helped the Cardinals stay in games, and even got them a win against Clemson to snap their longest losing streak since 1941. But for some reason, in the final few minutes of the game, Louisville has taken this game plan and thrown it completely out the window.

"There are some other moments where we don't make good decisions. That's something that has plagued us throughout the year," Pegues said. "I'm not gonna put it all on the kids. I'm sure that there are some situations there where I can probably help them a little better with a different set play.

"But again, when the game is on the fly, and I'm out of the picture, and you have the ball in your hands, these are the moments that you want. This is why you come to Louisville. In those moments, we have to do a better job of being smarter with the ball, and more fundamentally sound, and being a responsible play maker that's capable of making a play for himself or others depending on what the defensive coverage is."

To be fair to Pegues and Louisville, North Carolina did really good job at defending this paint-oriented approach in crunch time. The tar Heels started to deny ball reversals, and Caleb Love did an exceptional job of denying the pass to the post, thus disrupting the timing of the set play and forcing Louisville to go the secondary action.

"I have to figure out a way to help those guys a little bit with that, but they have to be able to help themselves by being able to get open and catch the ball when they need to catch it, and get the ball in the post," Pegues said. "Then once we get it in there, we have to be able to convert."

Pegues knows that his guys have the ability to make good basketball decisions and stick to the game plan, but that the execution of it has been severely lacking at the most crucial point of the game.

If Louisville is to have some sort of miracle turnaround and go on an almost unprecedented run in the ACC Tournament, they don't have very much time left to start creating better habits. The Cardinals have just three games remaining in the regular season: two on the road against Wake Forest and Virginia Tech, and the regular season finale at home vs. Virginia.

But hey, better late than never.

(Photo of Jae'Lyn Withers, Brady Manek: Bob Donnan - USA TODAY Sports)

You can follow Louisville Report for future coverage by liking us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram:

Facebook - @LouisvilleOnSI
Twitter - @LouisvilleOnSI
Instagram - @louisville_report

You can also follow Deputy Editor Matthew McGavic at @Matt_McGavic on Twitter