Louisville Basketball: 5 keys for a successful 2018-19 campaign

Shoot the ball well from distance

3-point shooting was a strength for Louisville this past season. For the year, the team shot 37.1% from distance, a mark that ranked 77th in the nation (351 teams). Although their 3-point attempt rate of 35.2% of possessions did not rank incredibly high at 236th nationally, it is still reasonable to say that the Cardinals were deadly from deep. Also, considering how important the three-ball has become in today’s game, keeping up that accuracy from the perimeter will be a focal point in 2018-19.

Even though arguably the team’s best 3-point shooter last year, Quentin Snider (41.6% on 4.6 3PA per game), is now gone, there are still plenty of capable shooters on the roster. Most notably, returners Jordan Nwora (43.9% on 57 3PA) and Ryan McMahon (40.8% on 103 3PA) both shot over 40% from distance this past year while attempting their fair share of trifectas.

When taking into account the total 3-point attempts from the six returning rotation players (10+ mpg) and the four incoming transfers for Louisville, the major members of this 2018-19 roster shot 190-for-536 (35.4%) from distance this past season. This is certainly a reasonable mark and would have placed the team around No. 150 in the country last season. (Note: When including Christen Cunningham’s shooting, I used his 2016-17 season because he only played nine games last year for Samford. Steven Enoch did not make a 3-pointer in 2016-17, so he was excluded.)

Arguably the biggest concern when it comes to 3-point shooting is the inefficiency from deep of Louisville’s most valuable returning offensive player. V.J. King (32.0% on 75 3PA) is not a very strong shooter from the perimeter and that could hurt his ceiling as a scorer.