NCAA Basketball: Oregon’s potential, Livers’ importance and more takeaways

8) Jordan Nwora is Louisville’s offense right now

I don’t need to tell you that Jordan Nwora is a good basketball player. He was an All-ACC selection last year and is right in the thick of the National Player of the Year race.

Louisville obviously knows this, too, but they have become far too reliant on his scoring abilities. This has been the case all season yet was really exposed by Texas Tech in their win over the Cardinals on Tuesday night.

He takes 36.4 percent of all shots Louisville takes when he’s on the court, and that’s by design. Nwora has delivered all season, shooting over 54 percent from the field going into that game against the Red Raiders.

However, Texas Tech’s defensive strategy focused on taking Nwora away, focusing their help on him while leaving some other players open. It worked. Nwora shot just 4/16 from the field, including 1/7 from three-point range, to finish with a season-low 14 points while shooting as inefficiently has he has all season.

In other words, it was his first off game – and no one stepped up to fill the void. Steven Enoch was the only other player to score in double figures and he barely got there, scoring 10 points. He was also second on the team in shot attempts with eight, still a good distance behind Nwora.

I don’t expect Louisville to diminish Nwora’s role in their offense – he’s way too good for that – but no one on the roster showed any offensive urgency. They kept relying on Nwora to get out of his funk rather than attempting to create themselves, and the result was a disjointed offense, as head coach Chris Mack said after the game.

"“[Nwora] didn’t play very well. He wasn’t the only one. We were disjointed on offense. We were taking some quick shots and turning the ball over in transition. Had we taken advantage of it, the game would have felt different.”"

Nwora will always be Louisville’s leader, yet the Cardinals have plenty of talented players capable of carrying the load for stretches. That starts with Enoch, while five-star freshman Samuell Williamson is in that mix as well.

Texas Tech provided the blueprint for beating Louisville and, though slowing Nwora is much easier said than done, he’s going to have another off night at some point. This talented supporting cast has to do a much better job of stepping up when that happens.