Louisville takes down Duke at Cameron Indoor, 79-73

What. A. Win.

Rob Kinnan-USA TODAY Sports

I was going to do the standard postgame lede here, but to hell with that ...

THE LOUISVILLE F’ING CARDINALS JUST BEAT THE DUKE F’ING BLUE DEVILS AT CAMERON

For about 39 minutes, I was convinced this was going to be a game where Louisville was clearly the better team but still, through some seemingly inconceivable sequence of events, found a way to lose and ruin the rest of the weekend. It’s seeming more and more like those days are a thing of the past.

This was the third straight game where Louisville has been on the road facing a conference opponent, and where with three minutes to play in a tight contest, it seemed like all the momentum in the world was with the home team. The Cardinals found a way to win all three of those games.

Maybe the even greater takeaway here is for a half of basketball, David Johnson looked like one of the best players in America and a can’t miss future pro. Even when he wasn’t quite as stellar in the game’s second 20 minutes, he was still pretty damn fantastic. Assuming his shoulder is ok, Louisville sure seems like a hell of a lot more of a serious threat to do some net cutting in March (and April) than it did four hours ago. That performance is an absolute game-changer not just for tonight, but for the rest of this season and for as long as he wears the red and black.

There were a couple of downers — the previously alluded to injury and Jordan Nwora once again not coming up particularly large in a big game — but we’ll dive into those another time. Tonight is for celebrating. We’ve all earned it.

Could not have scripted a better end to a shitty week. Time to watch the last 10 minutes again.