By Russ Brown
Special to NKyTribune
LOUISVILLE — Just two days after being newly ranked in the Top-25 polls, Louisville’s basketball team will get a chance tonight to prove it belongs. And maybe even show it should be even higher than its current Nos. 24 and 22.
The Cardinals’ chance to provide irrefutable evidence that they’re the real deal will come in their first true road game at 7:15 p.m. (ESPN) against No. 3 Michigan State (7-0) in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge in the Breslin Center in East Lansing, Mich.
Although ranked, there are still plenty of skeptics due to UofL’s lightweight schedule — the Cards (5-0) didn’t receive a vote from 32 of the 65 AP voters. But they could expel those doubts with a win — or perhaps even a narrow loss — against the more experienced Spartans, who are mere 6-point favorites.
Whatever the outcome, UofL coach Rick Pitino has said numerous times that he likes this young team and thinks it could be a darkhorse Final Four contender come March.
“Really happy with the guys because this is a new basketball team,” Pitino said after UofL’s 77-57 victory over Saint Louis last Saturday in Brooklyn. “Four starters have left, 85 percent of our points are gone, but this is a damn good basketball team, so I’m really proud of them.
“I think the ceiling is very high with this team because they’re all new to each other. I think every game they’re going to get better and better. And I think, come (NCAA) tournament time, we’re going to be a helluva basketball team. But it’s going to take some time because we’re all new.”
This is being billed a rematch of last year’s Elite Eight championship game, won by Michigan State, 76-70 in overtime, but it is such in name only because — as Pitino indicated — UofL has seven newcomers. The projected starting lineup of guards Trey Lewis and Quentin Snider, forwards Damion Lee and Mangok Mathiang and center Chinanu Onuaku scored a grand total of 10 points in the meeting last March.
“Totally different team,” MSU standout Denzel Valentine says of Louisville. “They’ve got Quentin Snider and a couple of bigs. But I was watching the film, and it’s pretty much a new five that we’re going to be playing against. But it’s similar offensive styles, similar defensive styles. They’re a great basketball team, a great program, a lot of respect for their coaches, their players, everything they do.”
The Spartans also have some new parts, but returned players who contributed 40 points to the Elite Eight win. Foremost, of course, is Valentine, a 6-5 wing player who has established himself as an early candidate for national player of the year awards.
Valentine is averaging 19.9 points, 8.9 rebounds and 8.6 assists while shooting 46.9 percent overall, including 42.6 percent from 3-point range, so he will obviously be a focal point of Louisville’s 2-3 matchup zone and man-to-man defenses. In the March game, Valentine was just 1-of-5 on treys, but hit 6 of his 10 2-point shots while getting 15 points, seven rebounds and six assists.
Valentine already has two triple-doubles and Magic Johnson has called him “the best all-around guard in college basketball.”
In brief comments about Michigan State after the Saint Louis game, Pitino didn’t mention Valentine, but talked about the Spartans’ toughness, lethal fast break and homecourt advantage.
“When you think of Michigan State, you think of toughness, which they are,” Pitino says. “You think of rebounding, which they’re great at. The thing they’re awesome at — it’s like watching North Carolina on the break. They outlet and get it up the court quicker than any team in college basketball, with the exception of maybe North Carolina. They’re great at it.
“They reverse the ball movements outstanding. I love Tom (Izzo) as a coach. I think he’s one of the best in the game. All the coaches I talk to say the three toughest homecourt advantages are Kentucky, Michigan State and Kansas. We think we’ve got a big test, but we’re very excited about going there. It will get us ready for Kentucky. It will get us ready for the ACC because they’re such a great team.”
Michigan State is outrebounding opponents by 20 per game, about the same as UofL, so the battle of the boards should be fierce.
In addition to Valentine at forward, MSU will open with 5-10 Tum Tum Nairn Jr. (4.7 ppg) and 6-3 Byrn Forbes (11.4 ppg) at guard; 6-5 Javon Bess (8.0 ppg) at the other forward and 6-9 Matt Costello (7.7 ppg) at center. The Spartans have a deep bench headed by 6-10 Deyonta Davis (10.6 ppg) and 6-3 Eron Harris (6.6 ppg), a West Virginia transfer who averaged 17.0 ppg as a sophomore there. Like UofL’s Lewis, Forbes is a fifth year transfer from Cleveland State, where he averaged 15.6 ppg.
Michigan State is coming off a 77-64 win over previously undefeated Providence Sunday in the championship game of the Wooden Legacy in Anaheim, Calif., and also owns an impressive 79-73 win over No. 4 Kansas in which Valentine had a monster game with 29 points, 12 rebounds and 12 assists.
In the Wooden Legacy, the Spartans finished a stretch of six games in 13 days, but Izzo has always been fearless in his scheduling — the polar opposite of Pitino, who prefers to schedule success and avoid major tests in non-conference games.
“This has been brutal,” Izzo says. “Saying that, you get through it and you get in those next tournaments, the Big Ten and the NCAA, and this will be good experiences for them and a benefit. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger and this will be a good test for us against a quality team.”
One interesting sidelight of the game will be the reaction of Michigan State’s fans to the sex scandal investigation surrounding UofL. Think that’s the kind of thing the MSU student section might mention? Izzo says he will take time before the game to talk to the students in the “Izzone” about treating the visitors with “class and respect.”
Good luck with that.
Pitino says he expects a harsh road environment every place the Cards travel this season, as always.
“I haven’t been to any place where people were nice to me and said, ‘Rick, glad to have you here tonight,'” Pitino says. “I’ve been waiting, one time, for somebody to say that to me, but they’ve never done it. So it’s going to be difficult. But we’ve been one of the best road teams in college basketball the last four years, so I think we’ll handle it well.”