Pegues 'Proud' of Effort, Loved Crowd Energy vs. Duke; Not Playing Moral Victory Card

The Cardinals played with much higher level effort in front of a raucous home crowd, but still fell to the Blue Devils.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Given the circumstances, the Louisville men's basketball program had every opportunity to not put forth their best effort on Saturday.

The Cardinals were 11-9, had lost five of their last six games, with missing the NCAA Tournament almost a foregone conclusion. Earlier in the week, their head coach took his ball and went home, and the university and Chris Mack mutually agreed to part ways.

Oh, and the Cards' first game without Mack came against one of the top teams in the country - ninth-ranked Duke.

Needless to say, capturing a victory against the Blue Devils, all things considered, seemed like the definition of an uphill battle. The hill in question turned into a mountain once the ball was tipped, as Duke raced out to a 24-8 lead in the first ten minutes of the game.

But, like interim head coach Mike Pegues said earlier in the week, the Cardinals were not going to roll over.

After going down by 16, Dre Davis responded with seven unanswered points to pull within nine. Following a segment of trading baskets, Louisville used a 6-0 run to make it a one possession game, eventually heading into the half trailing by five. They might have faltered down the stretch, but things were tied up at 60 with eight minutes to go.

“I'm proud of our team's effort today," Pegues said. "We got down big early, and our guys fought back, they deserve a lot of credit for that. A lot of teams would lay down against Duke."

To Pegues' point, the effort and overall cohesion of his squad was much more apparent than it has been over the last few weeks. It was, quite frankly, the highest level of team chemistry displayed by Louisville since their late November trip to the Bahamas.

That wasn't the only thing he was pleased with. In his message to the fanbase earlier this week, he pleaded to them that, despite everything the program has gone through this season, not to give up on them and show out for their showdown against Duke.

They delivered.

The announced attendance wound up being 18,493 - the highest it has been all season long. Sure, the contingent of Blue Devils fans certainly helped out, but the overall buzz and energy being emitted from the crowd was arguably the highest it had been in two years.

“That was awesome," Pegues said. "I'm so grateful to our fan base, have to everything that they have gone through to be here today and support our guys. Even when we were down. And we've been down throughout the entire season. Our record is not respectable. We have to win a game for this fan base. We have to win the game for ourselves. But I am so grateful to our fans.

"People come up to me and say, 'hey, we're with you. We're behind you. We support you'. I mean, so heartfelt. I'm so grateful for that. I’m grateful to the fans for showing up today. I would just beg them to stay with us, and keep supporting these kids. I'll be fine, but the kids, they need that, and we need all the support we can get.”

But, the game didn't have the storybook ending Louisville (11-10, 5-6 ACC) wanted. They still wound up losing the game 74-65, and there was a good reason behind it.

The Blue Devils dominated the paint area, particularly on the offensive end. The out-rebounded the Cardinals 47-34, including 20-10 on offensive boards, which led to 22 second chance points. Duke also scored 42 points in the paint to Louisville's 26.

For Pegues, being close to beating Duke doesn't cut it.

“The effort was there tonight, at least in terms of competing and trying to win," he said. "I don't do the “moral victory” thing. I'm not doing that. That’s not good enough. We have to win games; that's the standard."

Pegues added that he didn't think Duke was "necessarily better than us today", but that they were the tougher team on the court, and that's what bothers him the most.

"I'm just an interim head coach, but we're going to be tough. They are going to be tougher than that," he said. "We gave up 20 offensive rebounds. I'm irate about that. I don't care how tall Mark (Williams) is or what pick Paolo (Banchero) is. We can't give up 20 offensive rebounds. We can't lose every 50-50 ball. We can't lose concentration off the ball.

"We beat ourselves today, credit to Duke. If we win the effort game, which we talked about prior to the game, we win the game.”

Louisville will be back in action on Tuesday, Feb. 1, when they host Duke's archrival, North Carolina, at the KFC Yum! Center. Tip-off is scheduled for 8:00 p.m. EST.

(Photo of Mason Faulkner, Noah Locke, Mike Pegues: Jamie Rhodes - USA TODAY Sports)

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