Louisville Basketball: What Did Jay Bilas Say About The Cardinals?

We take a quick look at what ESPN’s Jay Bilas had to say about the Louisville basketball team heading into the Kentucky game.

Over the years, I have to come respect the opinions of ESPN’s Jay Bilas. Even with his obvious ties to Duke University, he generally is pretty level-headed when it comes to assessing college basketball teams. Bilas took to the air to discuss the Louisville basketball team that will be taking on Kentucky this week.

This #6 Kentucky versus #10 Louisville match-up will surely be one of the most hyped up games of the season, but it still looks as though the Wildcats may have the edge coming into the game.

Hopefully Louisville can shock the world and pull off the upset on Wednesday night in the KFC Yum Center.

cardinals

Big Red Louie 1 dLouisville Basketball: 10 Crucial Questions Surrounding The UK Game

More headlines around FanSided:

2d - Louisville Basketball: 5 Impact Players For The UK vs. UofL Game 4d - Louisville Basketball: Previewing The Cards Brutal Next Five Games 5d - Louisville Basketball: Revisiting The Last Five Games Against Kentucky 5d - Louisville Basketball: 5 Rules For Watching The Kentucky Game 6d - Louisville Basketball: CBS Sports Ranks The Best Tournament ResumesMore News at Big Red Louie

Take a look at the quote by ESPN’s Jay Bilas, according to Jeff Greer’s article from the Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky.

“Donovan Mitchell is going to have to have a good game. Their top scorer has to score. … They’re going to have to play some (man-to-man defense). They’re going to have to mix it up. You can’t give this Kentucky team one look throughout the game.

You know, some people may not grasp how pressing works. You can press for a lot of different reasons: You can press to speed the game up or you can press to slow the game down. There are containment presses to slow the advance and get the ball out of handlers’ hands to non-handlers, which (U of L coach Rick Pitino) is an expert at.

If they’re giving up layups, they’ll take it off. I think you’ll see Louisville press at times throughout the game. Louisville has no aversion to playing at a fast tempo, but I don’t think they want to play at the tempo Kentucky likes.

What I would say, it’s kind of an axiom in basketball – or at least it’s my axiom: It’s easier to slow a game down than it is to speed one up. It’ll be easier for Louisville to get their tempo.”

I think Jay Bilas brings up a very good point in his comments about this game against Kentucky.

Louisville is going to have to mix up their looks against the Cats. These players are extremely athletic and will find ways to get to the rim. At the same time, the Cards will have to adjust and force them to make bad decisions with the basketball.

You never know how a young team will respond when they come into a crazy environment. Cardinals fans need to make sure that they are in their seats on time and ready to give this Kentucky team everything they have in their vocal chords on Wednesday night.