No. 6 Louisville Cardinals Pull Double Whammy on Memphis Tigers

Most teams cannot come back from a 16 point deficit in the early stages of the game. But the Louisville Cardinals are not the No. 6 team in the country for nothing.

Memphis Tigers came into the game seeking the first victory for fourth-year head coach Josh Pastner over a Top 25 team. It would be fitting to get the victory against a rival school.

Memphis started the game as if they were about to the run the Cardinals not only out of the FedExForum but out of the city of Memphis.

Unfortunately for Memphis, Louisville had two things that do not show up in scouting reports – Poise and Resilience.

Louisville point guard Peyton Siva willed the Cardinals through the last few minutes of the first half to cut the lead down to seven. Then, Louisville’s scoring leader, Russ Smith, limped his way back into the game after a devastating looking ankle injury to provide production for the team.

While the Cardinals were down, you never saw their body language change to disbelief. They did not argue with each other about assignments. The Cardinals continued to play their style of play.

This is something the Tigers have to learn. Memphis gave themselves a chance to upset the Cardinals. But they have to understand that basketball is a game of runs.

The Memphis’ run led to a 16 point lead. But with almost 30 more minutes to go in the game, understand that the Cardinals are due a run also.

Memphis could not recover mentally from the Cardinals’ run. Players got frustrated. Players dropped their heads. The team went away from playing as a team and playing more one-on-one.

Siva and Smith lead their team to victory. I did not see a leader rise for the Tigers.

Patosha Jeffery is the Memphis Tigers Featured Columnist at Rant Sports. Be sure to follow her on Twitter @patoshajeffery and add her Google + to your circles for all of her latest articles and thoughts.