Louisville Cardinals Must Improve to Beat Northern Iowa Panthers in NCAA Tournament

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The Louisville Cardinals did just enough to barely squeak past the Anteaters of UC Irvine in Friday’s second round of the NCAA Tournament‘s East Region. They won, 57-55, on late free throws by Quentin Snider after the Anteaters made a mess of their last chance to win the game.

But if Louisville has plans for a deep run through March and perhaps into April, it will have to play far better than it did today when it meets Northern Iowa (31-3) in the third round on Sunday. Earlier in the day, the Panthers advanced with a relatively simple win over the Wyoming Cowboys.

Part of Louisville’s problem today was the post matchup between Montrezl Harrell and UCI’s 7-foot-6, 300-pound center Mamadou Ndiaye. There really is no other player in college basketball (at least in the NCAA Tournament) like Ndiaye, whose mere presence down low took away some of Harrell’s potential effectiveness. Harrell and Ndiaye ended up canceling each other out, with Harrell posting eight points and four rebounds, while Ndiaye finished with 12 points and five rebounds.

Northern Iowa’s best player is far more manageable by Harrell’s standards, 6-foot-8, 240-pound forward Seth Tuttle. But Tuttle’s ability to do a little bit of everything probably presents Louisville (24-8) with a more difficult matchup issue than did Ndiaye. Tuttle leads the Panthers in points, rebounds and assists. Even though he is the only Northern Iowa player who averages in double figures for scoring, his ability to find teammates and do other things to help UNI win prevents Louisville somewhat from keying on him exclusively Sunday.

As usual, Louisville didn’t shoot well today, hitting just 41 percent from the field against the Anteaters (team only shoots 43 percent). Guards Snider and Wayne Blackshear combined to shoot 14-for-31 from the floor, and took nearly 60 percent of Louisville’s shots. Harrell was 3-for-8. More balance and better opportunities to get Harrell involved in the offense must be capitalized upon if the Cardinals are to be successful Sunday.

While you can chalk up part of the reason for today’s game being close to Ndiaye’s presence, the bottom line is if Louisville isn’t much more effective offensively on Sunday, Northern Iowa will be booking a trip to the Sweet 16.

Ed Morgans is an ACC Basketball Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @writered21 and add him to your network on Google.

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