Louisville Basketball: 2019-20 season review of the Cardinals
By Neil Adler
Key individual performers for Louisville
The Cardinals’ success started and ended with Nwora, the unit’s star junior forward. He culminated 2019-20 at 18.0 points in 33.1 minutes per contest, good for third place in the ACC, to go along with 7.7 rebounds and 1.3 assists.
On the year, Nwora shot 44.0 percent from the field as a whole, 81.3 percent from the charity stripe, and a stellar 40.2 percent from 3-point land. Pretty impressive numbers, if you ask me.
For his contributions, the Buffalo, N.Y., native got named to the All-ACC first team and the AP All-American third crew, among other accolades.
Nwora put forth a slew of affairs where he accumulated more than 20 points, including outbursts of 37 points and 32 points versus Boston College and the Seminoles, respectively.
Conversely, Nwora did own a handful of disappointing, and relatively startling, dud-like performances. He only registered eight points in an overtime loss to Kentucky, a half-dozen points in Louisville’s triumph at Duke, two points in a defeat at Georgia Tech, and five points in a setback at Clemson.
For my money, redshirt senior center Steven Enoch delivered admirable production in limited action. Averaging just 20.4 minutes per encounter, he tallied 9.5 points and 5.6 boards, while connecting on 51.6 percent from the field, 74.0 percent from the free-throw line, and 33.3 percent from long-range.
Redshirt senior forward Dwayne Sutton collected an All-ACC, honorable-mention nod, as he posted 9.1 points, 8.2 rebounds and 1.7 dimes on 50.5 percent accuracy from the field.
Junior forward/center Malik Williams arrived in the No. 2 spot, voting-wise, for the ACC 6th Man of the Year. He garnered 8.5 points and 6.1 boards a game.
Props are also payable to redshirt senior guard Ryan McMahon, who chipped in 8.7 points per meeting and made 43.6 percent of his attempts from beyond the arc, as well as an astounding 93.2 percent from the charity stripe.
I had hoped for a bit more from guard Lamarr “Fresh” Kimble, a highly touted graduate transfer from Saint Joseph’s. He saw 21.8 minutes per bout and nabbed 5.0 points. Kimble hit on a so-so 35.9 percent from the field and a sub-par 27.6 percent from deep.