McMahon carves out larger role

Senior finishes with 16 points against Miami in season opener

Ryan McMahon is seeking a larger role for Louisville men’s basketball this season. The fifth-year senior showed his capability in providing more for the Cardinals in the season opening victory against Miami.

Making his second career start, the 6-foot guard finished with 16 points on 6 of 10 shooting in 24 minutes. McMahon made four 3-pointers, including two shots from behind the arc that helped start a 17-0 run in the first half that allowed Louisville to take the lead for good.

“I have started to carve out a bigger role just because I feel like this team needs more out of me than they got last year, we lost a few guys in CC [Christen Cunningham] and Khwan [Fore] and Akoy [Agau],” McMahon said. “When that happens, everybody’s role increases that returns.”

McMahon’s perimeter shooting ability is a reputation that has been built since high school. He has made 118 3-pointers in his college career while shooting 37.8 percent from behind the arc, but he wanted to add another dimension to his offensive attack.

He made a midrange jumper off the dribble against Miami, a shot he plans to look for when opponents push him off the 3-point line.

“It’s something I have worked really hard on this offseason, just to add to my game to keep guys honest so they can’t just press up on me,” McMahon said.

McMahon uses experience and preparation in hopes of being a reliable defender. He studies scouting reports and film to have a better understanding of how to guard opponents.

“Knowing who is quicker, what the other guys on the team do well versus what they don’t do as well,” McMahon said. “Know what moves they like to do, so I’m ready and know what to expect.”

“When you are slower you have to take better angles, trying to use my basketball IQ anyway I can to get an upper hand in defending a guy.”

Despite the 87-74 conference road victory against Miami, McMahon thought the Cardinals have plenty of areas to work on heading into Louisville’s first home game of the season against Youngstown State. Louisville has focused on denying paint touches in practices leading up to Sunday’s game.

“I felt like although we somewhat dominated for most of the game, other than the first and last eight minutes, we have a lot of improvement to do in a lot of different areas from top to bottom,” McMahon said.