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Louisville Basketball: Takeaways from Cardinals upset loss to Texas Tech

By Michael Walton

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - DECEMBER 10: Louisville Cardinals head coach Chris Mack reacts during the second half of their game against the Texas Tech Red Raiders at Madison Square Garden on December 10, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Emilee Chinn/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - DECEMBER 10: Louisville Cardinals head coach Chris Mack reacts during the second half of their game against the Texas Tech Red Raiders at Madison Square Garden on December 10, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Emilee Chinn/Getty Images) /
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – DECEMBER 10: Jordan Nwora #33 of the Louisville Cardinals (Photo by Emilee Chinn/Getty Images) /

Louisville Basketball took their first loss of the season on Tuesday night to a tough Texas Tech team. The loss will likely knock the Cardinals from the top spot in the polls, making them the fourth team to lose their No. 1 ranking this season.

Louisville Basketball was the latest in a long line of No. 1 ranked teams to fall after their 70-57 to the Texas Tech Raiders on Tuesday night. The Cardinals came into Tuesday night’s Jimmy V. Classic in Madison Square Garden with a tidy 9-0 record and were in the top-5 in both offensive and defensive efficiency in KenPom.

They were facing off against a feisty Texas Tech team that—while still without their best player in five-star recruit Jahmi’us Ramsey—sports an incredibly strong defense and has a great head coach in Chris Beard. The Red Raiders were hungry for a win and with the game being on a neutral site, it was the toughest challenge that Louisville basketball has faced this season.

The game was tight to start but things weren’t looking great for Louisville basketball as they went long periods without scoring, which slowly sapped the energy from a defense that was playing well. The Cardinals were trailing by three points at the half but it felt like a much, much bigger deficit as Cards’ star and National Player of the Year candidate Jordan Nwora started off an abysmal 1/9 from the field.

The Red Raiders’ defense harassed Louisville into 19 turnovers and limited the contributions of the Cardinals supporting cast as Nwora stayed aggressive. After Texas Tech guard Moretti hit consecutive jumpers, it felt like the game was over and indeed the Cardinals would go on to lose by 13 points.

Despite no loss ever being a good thing, it is nice for this Louisville basketball squad to face some adversity (in the form of this humbling loss) early in the season. The Cardinals’ next two matchups against Eastern Kentucky and Miami (OH) don’t figure to provide much of a challenge before massive back-to-back matchups against in-state rival (No. 8) Kentucky and ACC foe (No. 21) Florida State.

So again, the loss to Texas Tech is extremely disappointing for a Louisville team that had a real chance to be undefeated heading into their matchup with rival Kentucky but it did produce some important takeaways for Louisville basketball.

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