PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The three-point shot can be the great equalizer in college basketball, but it can also be a killer. It all depends on how a team uses it. For a textbook case, just look at Louisville in their 92-70 win at Providence on Wednesday night.
Under Rick Pitino, the Cardinals have been a team that loves the three-point shot and tends to get better shooting it as the season goes along. But taking 20 of 29 shots from behind the arc, as the Cardinals did in the first half on Wednesday, is a bit much, especially for a team this athletic. It showed, as the Cardinals shot just 6-20 from long range and went into the locker room down by five after scoring the first 14 points of the game.
Their opponent is a team that has often lived and died by the three-pointer this season. But Providence, a less talented and experienced team, attacked the basket often in the first half, and it showed. They shot nearly 52 percent from the field, including 5-10 from three-point range, and had a 20-12 edge in points in the paint.
In the second half, the Cardinals started attacking. They made eight of their first 12 shots, with just three coming from long range. They continued to get baskets in close, and before you knew it, the three-point shots started falling as well since many of them came more in the flow of an offense. They shot over 61 percent in the second half, including 6-10 from long range.
“I thought it was more our offensive execution than our defensive execution,” said Rick Pitino, when asked about the difference in the second half.
Certainly, the Cardinals defended better in the second half, as the Friars shot below 37 percent from the field. They also killed the Friars on the glass, out-rebounding them 26-7 in the latter frame for a 45-21 advantage. But the offense was a noticeable difference. They started inside and then moved outside, and unlike the first half they were able to score consistently. Louisville had 24 points in the paint in the second half.
“We just didn’t have a big enough post presence in the first half, and had a much bigger presence in the second half,” Pitino added.
A big part of that post presence is Samardo Samuels, who nearly had a double-double with 17 points and nine rebounds. But he had good help with active forward Jared Swopshire grabbing 11 rebounds and guards like Edgar Sosa and Jerry Smith getting to the basket.
Sosa, in particular, had a nice night to continue a good senior year. The Friars overplayed him to the right in an attempt to force him left, and for a while it worked as he couldn’t get to the basket and at times settled for jumpers. But in the second half, he was better, and also got going on some run-outs en route to finishing with a game-high 26 points.
“I think he’s matured,” Pitino said of Sosa. “He accepts coaching – before he thought it was criticism. I asked him last year, how do you get better if you’re not coached? I think he’s played great the whole year and focuses in on every little thing.”
Louisville entered the game shooting just under 32 percent from long range on the season, a number that will go up a little after they shot 40 percent on Wednesday. But thus far, they have been more of a volume shooting team than anything given their percentage. As Wednesday night’s game showed, however, a little change in the offense can change the results.
The three-pointer can be the great equalizer. For Louisville on Wednesday, it was the final nail in the coffin after it threatened to take them down in the first half.
