The Floyd Street Tribune: What will Louisville be good at this season?

Inside: Curiosity led to the question, and I'm fascinated to find out the answer this winter. Let's explore the possibilities. And, yes, recruiting is in here.

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A current roster question: What will Louisville do well?

I want to start the answer to this curiosity by acknowledging how difficult it is to analyze last season’s team and its numbers for several obvious reasons. Louisville’s players (and assistants/support staffers) endured a chaotic season, and the results and stats reflect that.

HOWEVA, I’d love to figure out where Louisville might butter its bread this coming season. To do that, we have to do two things: (1) Find where the Cards were OK-to-good last season and (2) figure out how that might apply to Kenny Payne’s preferred style of play, which I’m guessing will be a mix of Denny Crum’s Cards and John Calipari’s Cats, with a dash of NBA influence. What that looks like is far more compelling to me than any recruiting narratives or other stories going.

So, let’s dive in …

Defensive rebounding

For all its defensive flaws, U of L actually posted good defensive rebounding rates last season, ultimately ranking fourth in the ACC and 54th nationally in defensive rebounding percentage on KenPom.com. The Cards had four solid defensive rebounders in Malik Williams (22nd nationally), Jae’Lyn Withers, Sydney Curry and Roosevelt Wheeler. Sam Williamson was also a really strong rebounder from the wing. Three of those five guys are back, and I’d especially expect Curry and Withers to play key roles this coming season. They add in Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, who is a big dude but also whose defensive rebounding rate at Tennessee was just OK, and Kamari Lands, who plays very much like a Syracuse small forward (which is why he was once committed there). Lands is a big wing who can be really effective on the glass, as is Mike James. That group should be solid enough to build on last season, though Williams’s production there is tough to replace.