Louisville basketball put on one of the most impressive performances of the early part of this college basketball season on Tuesday night, surviving a second-half rally from No. 9 Kentucky to get a marquee win, 96-88, and stay unbeaten on the season.
Louisville is building some continuity in its program under Pat Kelsey, and it has plenty of returning players that contributed to this win in a big way. J'Vonne Hadley played well doing a lot of little things, and some of the front court that is still working their way back from injury also contributed.
However, none of them ended up being the story of the night. That honor would belong to freshman point guard Mikel Brown Jr., a five-star recruit who absolutely showed out on Tuesday night. Brown led all scorers in the game with 29 points on 8-for-16 shooting and 3-for-10 from the 3-point line.
After the game, Kelsey talked about his freshman point guard and his contributions to the win, via Connor Stanley of On3 Sports.
“We have really good guards. Mikel is special. Ryan is huge for us,” Kelsey said. “My goodness was he (Mikel) special tonight.”
Brown had all of his skills as a scorer on display in this game. He showed off deep range from behind the 3-point line and proved that he can still get buckets off the dribble from distance, which opened up some of his driving in the second half. When Brown did get downhill and get to the rim, he showed the ability to finish through and around contact with both hands, including a massive left-handed and-one late in the game that helped extend the Louisville lead.
Brown's new backcourt-mate, Xavier transfer Ryan Conwell, also had a huge night with 24 points on 6-for-16 shooting. That level of scoring potency from both guards put a lot of pressure on the Kentucky defense from start to finish, and eventually was one of the biggest differences in the game.
If Louisville is going to get to where it wants to go this season, Brown is certainly going to be a big part of that and will have to continue building on this performance. If Tuesday night was any indication, the Cardinals will have one of the best point guards in college basketball moving forward.
