The Seminoles have now won four straight over the Cardinals.
Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images
It has been a 48 hours to forget for the Louisville men’s basketball program.
Three days ago, the Cardinals were unbeaten in the ACC and ranked No. 16 in the current AP top 25 poll. Tonight, they’re an unranked squad licking their wounds after a 78-65 home loss to Florida State that dropped them to 4-2 in conference play.
A slow start was yet again the story for Louisville in this one. The Cards allowed Florida State to knock down four threes in the game’s opening five minutes and race out to a 14-4 lead. That lead would ultimately balloon to as many as 24 before the Cards ended the first half on a 12-2 run.
Louisville trimmed the FSU lead all the way down to eight, but a Carlik Jones turnover on a 2-on-1 fast break that resulted in a Seminole dunk on the other hand allowed the visitors to regain control. U of L was never able to get the lead back down to single digits again.
The Seminole players then gave the few U of L fans in attendance something to go home with.
FSU defeats UofL 78-65. Adding insult to injury, some of the Seminoles gave the fans the “L’s down” as they walked off the floor
— John Lewis WDRB (@JohnWDRB) January 19, 2021
Louisville has now lost four straight in this series with Florida State that dates all the way back to 1968. Before this current streak, the Cards had lost back-to-back games to the Seminoles only once (1978).
I’m upset about this one on its own, don’t get me wrong, but tonight also made me twice as mad about the Miami game. Florida State is supremely talented, red hot at the moment, and seems to have Chris Mack’s number a little bit. You can live with this loss (although you certainly would have liked to have seen it be a bit more competitive). What you can’t live with is going through the motions for half a game you should win by double digits, and ultimately flying home with a loss to a team likely to finish in the bottom five of the league standings. Those are the ones that really bite you. Those are the ones that set negative streaks into motion. Those are the ones that make nights like tonight far more difficult to brush aside.
Now you turn your focus to a Duke team that is desperate to get something going and start erasing the “Kentucky, Duke and UNC could all miss the tournament” talk that is everywhere at the moment. You have to find a way to keep them from getting those positive vibes going against you.
It’s going to be a long five day wait between now and then.
