If, as many have predicted, scoring is going to be an issue for the Louisville basketball team in 2015-16, the Cards certainly showed no signs of it on opening night.
Four U of L players scored in double figures and the Cardinals shot 53.6 percent as a team in an 86-45 rout of Samford in the season opener for both teams.
After a handful of relatively uninspiring performances during the preseason, Donovan Mitchell kicked off his college career in style by knocking down all 4 of his field goal attempts on his way to scoring 14 points to go along with 3 steals and 3 rebounds. Despite not scoring his first points of the game until deep into the second half, projected leading scorer Damion Lee chipped in with 14 of his own. Quentin Snider added 12 points and 4 assists, while Chinanu Onuaku contributed 11 points to go along with his game-high 5 blocks.
I know it's Samford, and I know it's just one game, but I wasn't sure this team could beat anyone by 41 while getting next-to-nothing from Damion Lee until the game was already well in hand. Assisting on 19 of 30 made shots also speaks pretty loudly.
The bench was up the whole game, all the guys on the court seemed willing to share the ball, and everyone seemed to display an understanding of their respective role. Not all nights are going to go as smoothly as night one, but I'm still very confident that this is going to be a group that is extremely fun to follow for the next five months.
