Cards Men's Basketball Delivers 103-51 win over West Georgia

Wednesday, November 3

LOUISVILLE, KY

7:00 PM

University of Louisville

0-0,0-0ACC

103

West Georgia (exhibition)

0-0,0-0Gulf South

West Ga.

Louisville

103

Samuell Williamson drive to the basket in an exhibition vs West Georgia

Cards Men's Basketball Delivers 103-51 win over West Georgia

November 03, 2021 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score Chris Mack Postgame Press Conference Dre Davis Postgame Press Conference Matt Cross Postgame Press Conference Game Highlights Photo Gallery

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The University of Louisville men's basketball team rolled past West Georgia 103-51 Wednesday night at the KFC Yum! Center in the Cardinals' final exhibition game before regular season play begins next week.

Dre Davis and Samuell Williamson paced the Louisville scoring effort with 15 points each as five players reached double figures for the second consecutive game. Williamson added two assists, two steals and two blocks to his line with Davis also contributing three assists and a block. Jalen Sasser led the Wolves with 14 points, six rebounds and a steal.

Davis kicked the night off with a strong drive to basket on Louisville's first possession of the game. The Cardinals continued to score with ease in the paint, making four of their first five baskets at the rim. West Georgia opened the game strong, taking a 12-11 lead into the first media timeout of the half. UofL regained the lead with 18-16 off a pull-up jump shot from Williamson and would not relinquish it for the remainder of the game, outscoring the Wolves 36-14 in the final 13 minutes of the half for a 54-28 lead heading into the locker room.

Louisville continued to get to the basket in the second half, scoring its first 10 points inside the paint. The Cards displayed another strong defensive effort, holding West Georgia to just two points for eight minutes as they poured in 13 points, highlighted by two deep threes from Matt Cross. UofL eventually took a 55-point lead with 1:09 remaining in the game after Roosevelt Wheeler scored off an offensive rebound to put the Cards up 103-48.

The Cardinals shot an impressive 57 percent from the field, including 48 percent from three-point range for the game, making 11-of-23 three-point attempts from seven different players. Louisville only turned the ball over eight times after making turnovers a point of emphasis following 17 turnovers against Kentucky State last week.

Up next, UofL will take on Southern University in its first regular season game of the year on Tuesday, Nov. 9 at 9 p.m. ET at the KFC Yum! Center.

Head Coach Chris Mack Postgame Comments

(Opening Statement) "I thought we took a step forward from last game. I think West Georgia played harder and was more organized. I thought we overwhelmed them. We really cut down on our turnovers which is great to see. I think I got asked the question at the last press conference about with the pace we are going to play and how fast we are going to play are there an acceptable amount of turnovers. If we keep it under ten, I don't care if we play as slow as molasses or if we play fast that is doing a really good job. Even the ones we turned over were tough decisions we made. I thought our spacing was excellent. Defensively I thought the first five minutes I thought our guys buckled down and defended as a team. We were seeing actions for the very first time that they had to adjust to on the fly. We didn't talk a ton about West Georgia's offense aside from a few set plays. It was a good night and as I told our guys from here on out it is for real."

(About turnovers being an emphasis in practice): "I wouldn't say that we focused on it. We are focused on playing with pace and space and making good decisions all the time. I think our guys are smart enough to know that we mishandled some things and took some chances last game. We didn't stick to spacing in certain areas. Tonight, we were much better. One exhibition game after the first one doesn't cure everything. It is going to be something our team is going to have to be cognizant of if we want to play with pace for 40 minutes which you saw but at the same time we have to be really poised and smart with the decisions we make while we play fast. We are doing it every day. You would think our guys would figure it out if its open, how it is open and what to do with the ball. I thought we made better decisions tonight doing that."

(About turnover to assists ratios) "Guys will know where each other are as it is conditioned out of our offense. I think when we don't stick to our spacing and guys gravitate to the corners and are antsy for the ball and are not making more comfortable or easy for their teammates that is when guys don't know why you are there. If we stick to our spacing, when we get in the lane we should know where our teammates are at. It is on each of our players when the perimeter drives to slide by and create more space. We are getting a feel for that. There are certain guys on the team who are magnets and I mean that is a very, very good way. They are going to draw a lot of attention whether they are rolling to the rim or spacing on the floor. You saw a couple of drives by Dre (Davis) and it was like 'who is helping'. He knows where his outlets are and to go one more and one more. It was really good to see against a different team. We see it against ourselves every day. "

(About threes coming from kickouts on drives) "It is hard to get good looks from threes every time with terrific shooters. If you get feet-set-threes, there are only one or two players where we don't want them taking that shot. You can probably guess who those three are – they play the five for us. Malik (Williams) can certainly shoot it. As long as their feet are set and we deliver that pass, so that we aren't reaching over our head or down near our shoelaces but right on the money – we work on that every day. Those are good shots for our team. "

(About Samuell Williamson driving the ball to the rim) "He has got to play aggressively. He has to recognize handoff action to try to get himself downhill. To be able to run through passes and catch a defender sleeping and maybe close it out. Don't let the ball hit your hands and then drive it. The ball is four or five feet from your hands, just run through the pass and catch that defender sleeping and that gets you in the lane. He is a good passer so if you converge you can find the open man and if not, he did a great job of getting to the rim and finishing tonight."

(About Roosevelt Wheeler) Rose (Roosevelt) has the best combination on our team, big guy-wise, of athleticism and hands. That is a really good thing. He is a lob catcher. He is strong. He can rebound in traffic. He was woefully behind in terms of the speed of the game. He still is defensively. He has to be on time to things. He has to meet baseline expectations. This is all new to him. If you combine that with unfortunately having to rehab an Achilles tendon out of high school, he was really behind the eight ball. He has an extraordinary senior to learn from and hopefully grow from in Malik Williams. Tonight was a small glimpse of who he can be in the future. I don't know if that will be this year. I don't know. He has the best combination of athleticism and hands on our bigs. "

(On who displayed an ability to create their own shot) "I do not think that think that is a crazy strength of this team, which is why it's so important that we recognize how to quickly flow in our actions to get the ball, spread it, play off bad close outs, and make really good reads. I think that we did that tonight. El (Ellis) is a player that comes to mind, but he has JUCO moments sometimes. He has a burst; he's got a lot of speed. He is nightmare in transition. He usually finishes better, there was tonight that he sort of double clutched in the lane. That is usually automatic for him. I think that he was thinking about a few of his turnovers that happened before that, but he is probably the one guy that can really create his shot. Jae'Lyn (Withers) can really create his shot at his position. I know it seems a little awkward because we usually think guards, but as long as he does not settle with that James Harden step back that he likes to showcase every once in a while and instead attacks the rim, he is a guy that can really create his own shot."

(Mack on if the one-time transfer rule affects early season scouting of opponents) "Not really because generally transfers that are playing a lot have film from their previous school. If you were scouting our team, although we have put Noah (Locke) in a lot of different positions than he was in his old offense, same with Matt (Cross), you still know what they are capable of. Often it is a lot harder when the kid comes from junior college, comes off an injury, or is a freshman to really know his true game, but usually there is so much video tape that we can work something."

(On Mason Faulkner not playing in the exhibition game) "Mason (Faulkner) tweaked it, but he could have gone tonight. I just felt if we had lost to West Georgia, besides everybody trying to crush me in the YUM! Center, it wouldn't have meant anything. We just want to play well. I'd rather have him healthy. He practiced in our shoot around today. He practiced yesterday and had a really good practice. We just felt like it wasn't necessary. Let's just keep him on the right path."

(On Dre Davis, Matt Cross, and Sam Williamson all playing well in exhibition play, and how Coach Mack is planning to divide up minutes at the wing during the regular season) "We can play a lot of ways. At one point tonight, we played all three of them, so the best players play. Coaches don't really decide who goes in the game, their effort and their production do on both ends of the floor. That's the nice thing about having a roster where you have more than one option. We have some really talented wings; they all have different strengths and we're going to utilize all of them. There are going to be times where they play together too."

(On how Dre Davis affects the game in many ways) "He's a utility guy in terms of like he does a little bit everything. He's as tough as they come. He's all about winning. I think if he learned anything from his freshman year, it's not to get down on himself and be more of a team guy. He had a voice last year as a freshman but some older guys on the team, a guy like Carlik (Jones), he took a backseat in terms of leadership, but he hasn't this year, he's had the voice every single day that demands respect, he's practiced hard. He's a tough matchup and he's strong. I think the way that we're spacing, I don't want to say around him because it's around everybody, but a few of those drives right in front of our bench. We're simply because of really good spacing and Dre was poised with the ball, got right to the rim, pushed his dribble through, didn't pick it up early and he finished, he does a lot of good things on both sides."

(On letting the players sort things out themselves on the floor) "When the voices of the players are stronger than the voices of the coach, you've got a special team. We have a few guys that really value being vocal and are really experienced. We're not there yet. There's a lot of things that we're still implementing. It's more ears and eyes on the coaches, but I tell them all the time, it's their team. It's their team, the 108th team in Louisville history, it's all about those guys. It's the only time they'll be together as a group. I'll coach many more teams, but this is one time those guys are together. So, take ownership of your team, take ownership of your practices and we've got some great leaders in that locker room too."