On December 1, 1967, senior Westley Unseld, the greatest player in Louisville basketball history, scored 45 points in a 118-86 win over Georgetown.
That would be seriously overmatched Georgetown Ky. Tigers, not the Georgetown Hoyas.
Fifty eight years, two months and eight days (21,255 days) later Mikel Brown Jr., a heralded freshmen, thought by many observers to have been underperforming, tallied 45 points, tying Unseld’s all time U of L individual game scoring record.
This against North Carolina State, ranked 27th in the NET, 24th in Ken Pomeroy, winners of six in a row, eight of their last nine, 11 of their last 13.
Unseld led the Cards that night in yesteryore with 29 rebounds.
Brown led the Cardinals with 9 rebounds.
He also missed a breakaway slam after he stole the ball.
Tsk, tsk.
But, and it’s a big but, that super duper diaper dandy performance was far from the only superlative in the most surprising performance by a Cardinal outfit in memory.
* * * * *
The Louisville Cardinals were ready.
Oh my, were they ready.
At the first media timeout, the Cards were already +10 at 14-4. Brown had two assists. Isaac McKneely had a pair of triples, one on a feed from Sananda Fru, who also had an adroit low post seal, paving the path for a J’Vonne Hadley drive and layup.
Louisville was 6/7, and had grabbed six boards to the visitors 1.
They hadn’t hit the accelerator yet.
That would take awhile.
At a 6:24 stoppage, the lead was still just ten, but there was a more significant sign at that juncture that the Cardinals were locked in and lock down.
Coming into the game, Wolfpack PG Quadir Copeland had averaged 15 points, 11 assists and 2.5 steals over his last five games. In a win at SMU, he dished out 16 assists and didn’t turn it over..
At that point in the tilt, he had just committed his second foul, and the Cards had already forced him into three turnovers.
He ended the evening with 10 points, only three assists and four giveaways.
The Cards D on the rest of the visitors was just as smothering. Easily their best performance of the year at that end of the court.
Louisville, netting 58% of their FGs, netting 8/11 bombs and 12/15 at the charity stripe, added another ten to the advantage for a 56-36 lead at the break.
* * * * *
Then came the Don “Big Daddy” Garlits pedal to the heavy metal thunder acceleration. The smell of burning rubber still lingers around 2d and Main.
Coming out of intermission, Ryan Conwell hit a step back trey, followed it with a +1, which was exclamation pointed by a Brown net rippler from beyond.
Shell shocked and less than strong assed Will Wade was forced to call a timeout, after the Cards tallied nine points in the first 1:16.
Then came that missed Brown slam — Damn it, Kel, when are you going to live up to your hype? — which was followed by a couple Brown ICBM nothing but nets sandwiching his deuce on a fastbreak.
A Khani Rooths breakaway dunk made it 75-40 with 15:45 still left to the buzzer.
Twas a laugher from then on.
U of L reached the century mark on a couple Brown FTs with 5:26 still to go. And 18 more points to tally.
The Cards bested their opening half marksmanship after the break, hitting 62% and converting ten more threeballs. But it took 19 attempts to do so for only 53%.
* * * * *
Ryan Conwell was the only other double figure scorer.
With 31.
His shooting was OK, I suppose. 10/14. 5/6 from outside. 6/7 at the line.
When Louisville hit its only lull of the tilt about five minutes into the 2d, RC ended an 8-0 State run with a triple, then a couple FTs, then a +1.
He also happened to be U of L’s second leading rebounder with 7.
76 points from your starting backcourt.
Not bad, not bad at all.
* * * * *
Against a not really big State contingent, the Cardinals were +14 on the boards. And had 11 more assists.
* * * * *
Forty one point victories against legit competition are rare.
Hitting 18 of 30 from beyond the arc is an anomaly.
Wowing a national TV audience on Big Monday is never a given.
But on a chilly night in early February, a 118-77 knockout, well, sweet dreams are made of this.
— c d kaplan