The Floyd Street Tribune's viewing guide for the Red-White scrimmage
Inside: Player-by-player thoughts before Sunday's scrimmage; recruiting; expanding the NCAA Tournament; KenPom preseason numbers; and much more.
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It’s Louisville Live week, with the Red-White scrimmage due up on Sunday.
Let’s dive into a rapid-fire column, first on what I’m looking for on Sunday and then a few other scattershot thoughts on Louisville and college hoops in general.
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* The Red-White scrimmage is always a great first glimpse of Louisville’s team, the chance to see which players have physically progressed and which players appear to have gained confidence — or maintained it — over the offseason. It’s not the be-all, end-all event of the preseason, of course, because Lenoir-Rhyne (Oct. 30) and Chaminade (Nov. 3) will play exhibitions at the KFC Yum Center. But it gives us a start.
Here’s what I’ll be looking for:
(1) Playing style. We spent so much time talking about conditioning this offseason. We talked about the NBA influence on Kenny Payne. We talked about size, length and athleticism impacting how Louisville might scheme and deploy. So … how do the Cards actually play?
(2) Coaching interactions/tendencies. Obviously we’ll get a whole season to evaluate Louisville’s staff, and typically the staff splits up for the Red-White game, but we get the chance Sunday to see them interacting with each other and the players. Does Payne stay out of the scrimmage and watch? Does he take over coaching one of the teams? Is he a yeller? A pacer? A talker? None of the above? Take mental notes of this, too — we can compare it to where Payne is as a sideline presence in March.
(3) Individual players …