Three Takeaways From Louisville's NCAA Tournament Victory Over South Florida

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Louisville men's basketball program is movin' on in the Big Dance. Tasked with facing South Florida in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, the Cardinals were able to secure their first tournament win since 2017, earning an 83-79 win on Thursday.

Here are three takeaways from their showdown with the Bulls:

No. 1: Isaac McKneely redeemed himself.

In recent days, Isaac McKneely had had drawn the ire of the Louisville fanbase. In the Cardinals' previous game against Miami in the ACC Tournament, he only went 1-of-6 on threes (and 2-of-8 overall), and committed a brutal live ball turnover in the final minutes the essentially sealed the loss. Add in some up-and-down defense, and the fanbase's groans regarding his performance only got louder.

In Louisville's game against South Florida, they don't win without Isaac McKneely. The 6-foot-4, 179-pound shooting guard has had a couple cold streaks season, but that wasn't the case against the Bulls. He finished with a team-high 23 points, shooting 7-of-10 on threes and 8-of-11 from the field overall.

While he's been prone to taking threes that weren't either in the flow of the offensive or mechanically sound, McKneely's decision making and actual shot making was some of the best it has been all season. This helped space the floor for the offense as a whole, allowing the Cardinals to shoot 53.8 percent - which was their seventh-highest mark all season.

"when you make those first couple shots, your confidence continues to build," McKneely said. "I didn't have my best week at the ACC Tournament last week. As a shooter, you've got to continue to think the next shots going in always. This past week, I had some shoulder issues, wasn't able to shoot a whole lot. All glory to God, He blessed me with those abilities. He allowed me to be out here today. My training staff did a great job. I'm super thankful to see the shots go down and super happy with the win."

No. 2: Louisville's defense limited two of South Florida's biggest strengths.

Louisville has certainly been very hit-or-miss when it comes to their defensive efforts. But the certainly did a good job at limiting what South Florida likes to do best.

USF, like UofL, is a team that likes to push the tempo and take a lot of three-point tries. Despite entering the day only shooting 33.2 percent from deep, their 29.0 three-point attempts per game ranked 24th nationally.

The Bulls certainly took a lot of three, attempting 33 of them. However, Louisville held them to just five made threes, which was tied for South Florida's second-fewest all season.

On top of being a prolific three-shooting team, USF was also extremely adept at getting the most out of every possession by way of grabbing offensive rebounds - a lot of the time resulting in free throws. They entered the day averaging the third-most offensive rebounds per game at 15.5, and the most free throw makes (20.2) and attempts (27.1)

While South Florida hauled in 18 offensive rebounds, they only finished with 15 second chance points. They also only made 16 trips to the free throw line (for 14 makes), which was good for their fourth-fewest all season.

"We just had a big emphasis on boxing them out," forward Sananda Fru said. "They're a great team, especially the offensive rebounds on the offensive side. We put a bit emphasis on everybody hit, create a pocket to get the loose balls. I felt like my teammates and me did a good job to create these kind of pockets and gave me a great chance to grab the boards. And on the defensive end, we emphasized just to crash and be super aggressive. Everybody going in and fighting for loose balls just to make it super aggressive."

No. 3: Turnovers are still a massive issue.

Louisville won by four, but this was a game in which they should have won by at least 20. The primary reason why this did not wind up being a blowout was almost single-handedly because of the turnovers.

By the time the final whistle sounded, the Cardinals had coughed the ball up an astounding 22 times, which resulted in 24 Bulls points. 12 of these came in the second half when USF was implementing a full court press, which is why UofL's 23 point advantage disappeared despite shooting 16-of-22 in the period.

It's been a familiar theme for most of the season. They entered their game vs. USF averaging 11.6 of the season, which ranked 194th in D1. This abhorrent ball handling day came at a time where they were seemingly turning a corner, as they had only been averaging 9.0 per games over the last six game.

"First of all, you credit them, you credit South Florida," Kelsey said in regards to USF's second half on-ball defense. "Like I said, their season was on the line. When you talk about a sense of desperation, that's what I -- it was a tsunami. You do a better job of shortening our passing distances, getting three outlets out of traps.

No. 1: Isaac McKneely redeemed himself.

No. 2: Louisville's defense limited two of South Florida's biggest strengths.

No. 3: Turnovers are still a massive issue.

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