Louisville up Front

[Cardiotonic]

CBS Sports

•Louisville regularly used both Chinanu Onuaku and Mangok Mathiang together up front during their recent foreign tour in Puerto Rico and it will be interesting to see if that formula continues once the season begins. Playing two traditional big men at the same time has been somewhat of a lost art in college basketball because of the importance of a “stretch” four-man who can make shots, but the Cardinals looked quite capable in a few exhibition games with Onuaku and Mathiang at power forward and center respectively.

 

[beasleythecard]

I believe the lineup will be
Nanu
Mango
Adell
Lee
Lewis

With
Mamoud
Spalding
Johnson
Mitchell
Snider

Backing them up.

Mango and Nanu played well together.

 

[shadow force]

I believe the lineup will be
Nanu
Mango
Adell
Lee
Lewis

With
Mamoud
Spalding
Johnson
Mitchell
Snider

Backing them up.

Mango and Nanu played well together.

That would be a long and tall starting line up for sure. You think Adel has shown enough to start at this point?

 

[Cardiotonic]

I believe the lineup will be
Nanu
Mango
Adell
Lee
Lewis

With
Mamoud
Spalding
Johnson
Mitchell
Snider

Backing them up.

Mango and Nanu played well together.

That would be a long and tall starting line up for sure. You think Adel has shown enough to start at this point?

I believe the starters will be:
Nanu
Mango
Lee
Henderson
Sinder

 

[Senore2006]

That would be a long and tall starting line up for sure. You think Adel has shown enough to start at this point?

I like that lineup. And once you get the Lee @ the 3, Lewis and Mitchell, you still get rebounding from Mitchell. Mitchell will get many minutes this season. And the other freshman, Spalding, has just freaky and natural skills. He's going to be a steals machine. 18 deflections in one game in PR was absurd. Both of those guys need minutes to mature and secure their best skills.....which may even be defensive - like Adel's.

To me, the most interesting thing is not just watching the 2 5th year seniors or Mangok and Nanu's improvements. This year it is also the assessment of freshman as we find out their strengths - this is a way cool class, lol. I really like it.

 

[beasleythecard]

That would be a long and tall starting line up for sure. You think Adel has shown enough to start at this point?

He is a bonafide scorer and defender. Adell will garner a lot of pt. Teams will key on Lee and leave Adell free to roam. Adell on one wing and Lewis on the other means a lot of open shots and great rebounding lanes for Mango and Nanu.

 

[Senore2006]

He is a bonafide scorer and defender. Adell will garner a lot of pt. Teams will key on Lee and leave Adell free to roam. Adell on one wing and Lewis on the other means a lot of open shots and great rebounding lanes for Mango and Nanu.

Adel will need to work on his 3 or else concentrate on rebounding to keep his spot. With his work ethic and body, he could do both. His defense seems advanced for his age, but then so does it for Mitchell and Spalding I loved that bank shot of Adel's in PR from 18 feet. That was old school.

 

[J-Rye_UL]

Just looking at the new guys' performances in Purerto Rico
1) Damion Lee
.
.
.
.
.
2) Deng Adel
3) Ray Spalding
4) Donovan Mitchell
5) Trey Lewis
6) Jay Henderson

Adel really impressed me. Seems to have the body, skills, and IQ to make in impact immediately. Ray lacks the IQ, but has length and defensive instincts that you can't teach. Mitchell was definitely letting the game come to him, which resulted in small numbers but the potential was obvious. Lewis showed a lot of emotion, didn't create any easy shots for his teammates, and turned it over quite a bit. He will need to play a LOT better if UofL is going to be a good team this year. Jay Henderson is going to play, no doubt. He's long and can really lock in on defense. He takes what the defense gives him.

 

[Ipartiedwithhopgood]

Rick has a number of interchangeable parts. We'll see him set lineups based on match-ups at times this year.

 

[beasleythecard]

Rick has a number of interchangeable parts. We'll see him set lineups based on match-ups at times this year.

He has more interchangeable parts now than he has ever had. Fould trouble shouldn't be a problem this year. Consistant scoring is a small concern for me though.