SPORTS

Finding Harrell's offense a key for U of L

Jeff Greer
@jeffgreer_cj
Louisville's Montrezl Harrell fights Duke's Rasheed Sulaimon for control of the ball during Saturday's game at the KFC Yum! Center.

One time is just a bad game. Twice is a little troubling.

But for the fourth game in a row, Louisville's All-American forward Montrezl Harrell's offensive impact has been limited at best, and that's a major concern for the sixth-ranked Cardinals.

Since Harrell's 25-point performance at Wake Forest on Jan. 4, the 6-foot-8 junior has averaged nine points a game, six below his season average. Louisville has lost two of those four games, including Saturday's 63-52 loss to Duke.

During that stretch, Harrell's made just 14 of 32 shots, and three teammates have attempted more shots than him. Harrell, U of L's second-most-fouled player, has only been to the free-throw line 10 times in four games.

All of that begs the question: What's up with Harrell, and how can Louisville get its best big man – and its only consistent interior scoring threat – more involved in the offense?

"That's not for me to decide," he said on Saturday, perhaps in a moment of frustration. "I'm not the coach of this team."

Related:What we learned in Louisville's Duke loss

Louisville coach Rick Pitino had a different answer to the same question after Duke surprisingly switched to a 2-3 zone defense and limited Harrell to just six touches in the paint and a 4-of-10 shooting performance.

"He should post up more," Pitino said. "Post up more and get the ball ... I think that what he's got to understand is they're going to come after him."

However the blame is assigned, one thing is clear: For Louisville to win against its toughest opponents, the Cardinals (15-3) need to figure out a way for Harrell to score more, and they need to figure it out soon.

A review of Saturday's game found that Harrell posted up once over his 38 minutes on the floor. Harrell did touch the ball on every non-transition possession, but oftentimes the initial touch was the only touch, and it was some 25 feet from the basket.

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Pitino said a huge part of his team solving zone defenses, which will come up a lot more after Duke provided the blueprint to stopping Louisville, is getting U of L's big men the ball around the basket. That forces the defense to collapse, and the big men can either try to score a higher-percentage shot or find an open teammate.

"I have said that we are a little offensively challenged from the perimeter, so we've got to be meticulous with our paint touches because we're not a great shooting team," he said.

As part of Louisville's zone offense against Duke, Harrell started on a block and ran to the top of the key, caught a swing pass and turned. From there, he'd pass the ball to the opposite wing.

Sullivan:Louisville undone by Duke's zone gamble

He didn't see the ball much after that in halfcourt sets, crashing down the weak side of the lane and looking for offensive rebounds. He grabbed three of them and had one putback layup.

On one possession, he was wide open at the elbow, caught a bounce pass and attacked the basket, making a challenged layup.

On three other possessions, he roamed the baseline, where he's at his best on offense, and got three touches. He scored on a layup and drew a foul on one; he delivered a sharp interior pass on the second; and he dribbled underneath the basket and rimmed out a fadeaway 8-footer from the opposite block on the third.

Six of his 10 shots vs. Duke were jumpers, and the increase in shots away from the basket has been noticeable during his four-game scoring slump. Harrell's attempted 5 percent more jumpers than his season average, and just 43 percent of his attempts in the past four games have been layups, dunks or tips.

Related:Louisville recruiting at big weekend tournament

Hoop-Math.com, a college basketball statistics site, found that 27.2 percent of Harrell's shots last season were 2- or 3-point jumpers, compared to more than half of his attempts this season.

In other words, Harrell's offensive game has changed. His numbers are up – he's averaging one more point per game – but his last four games have started a trend in the wrong direction.

Now it's up to Harrell and Pitino to figure out how to turn things around.

Reach U of L beat writer Jeff Greer at (502) 582-4044 and follow him on Twitter (@jeffgreer_cj).

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