Three Takeaways From Louisville's 92-89 Win at Miami

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Louisville men's basketball program is heading into the postseason on a high note, taking down No. 22 Miami 92-89 in their regular season finale. The Cardinals earn their first win over a Quad 1A opponent this season after previously being 0-8 in such games, and snap a 14-game losing streak against ranked opponents on the road.

Here are three takeaways from their showdown with the Hurricanes:

No. 1: Louisville finally found a way to close out against a good opponent.

Last week at North Carolina and Clemson, Louisville got off to slow starts in the second half. Against teams like Arkansas, Tennessee, Duke and Virginia, they posed little threat at all after halftime. It's been a theme consistent all season long: the Cardinals can't deliver against a quality opponent.

Sure Louisville certainly made things a lot more interesting than they needed to be, but at the end of the day, they made winning plays.

Opposing teams have made it a habit of punching the Cardinals square in the mouth at the start of halves, but Miami couldn't land their blows. UofL started the game on a 13-2 run. They also went blow-for-blow with the Canes during the first 10 minutes of the second half.

UM did manage to trim their deficit and even pull ahead on a couple occasions, but for the first time this season, Louisville did not crumble against a quality team in crunch time. While it's just one instance, it's better late than never, and it could be the spark they need heading into the postseason.

"We talked about it before we left the locker room," head coach Pat Kelsey said in regards to starting both halves fast. "Yeah, our lead dissipated and went away eventually, but we came out of the half playing really well. But on the road, that happens. You know a good team like that is going to make a run, and they did it. The crowd really got into it, it was loud, it was rocking, senior night tonight. When it would have been easy for our guys to fold when they took the lead and they bowed up, and they figured it out."

No. 2: Adrian Wooley stepped up when he was needed most.

Saturday was far from Adrian Wooley's first start this season. During each of Mikel Brown Jr.'s games where he has either had to either come off the bench or sit altogether due to his lingering back injury, Wooley has been the guy that gets his spot in the starting lineup. This was also the case against Miami

While Wooley has played in every game and made 12 starts, he has been up and down at times this season. But against Miami, he had arguably his best game this season, and was a key component down the stretch.

The 6-foot-4, 200-pound point guard finished with 15 points (10 of which were in the second half), dished out a season-high six assists and tied for the team led in rebounds with four. He also sank the go-ahead three-pointer with 18 seconds left.

If Brown is going to miss anymore time moving forward, this is exactly the kind of performance Wooley needed in order to keep Louisville's offense humming.

"He was really kind of the go-to guy for us down the stretch," Kelsey said of Wooley. "He's a terrific one-on-one player, just putting him in space. They did a good job on that last play when we tried to confuse the switch a little bit, they guarded him well. Then he just found a little space on that step back, and made a big shot."

No. 3: Defense and fouling is still an issue.

Even without Brown, Louisville still had a fantastic day on the offensive end of the floor. They shot 61.1 percent overall, were 12-of-24 on three-point tries, and had 22 assists against only seven turnovers. But for as good as they were offensively, it was almost spoiled by a bad defensive outing.

The U shot 56.4 percent from the floor - the second highest by a UofL opponent all season - were 8-of-19 on threes, and had a 22-to-8 assist-to-turnover ratio. Additionally, Louisville, once again, couldn't stop fouling, doing so 19 times to result in a 19-of-23 effort from Miami at the free throw line.

This game was part of a more disturbing larger trend. Over the final six games of the regular season, Louisville opponents have shot 50.7 percent from the field and 33.9 percent on threes. The Cardinals themselves have averaged 17.8 fouls per game during this stretch, leading to their opponents taking 19.5 free throws per game.

As good as Louisville looked from an offensive standpoint against Miami, they're going to have to find a way to become more efficient on the defensive end of the floor as they prepare for the ACC and NCAA Tournaments.

No. 1: Louisville finally found a way to close out against a good opponent.

No. 2: Adrian Wooley stepped up when he was needed most.

No. 3: Defense and fouling is still an issue.

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