On Dec. 9, 2019, Louisville was 9-0, ranked No. 1 in the country for a second consecutive week and barreling towards a potential sweep of nonconference play. What's transpired in the weeks since has been a steady fall from grace for the No. 7 Cardinals, who dropped their second straight game losing at home to No. 18 Florida State 78-65.
The Cardinals (11-3, 2-1 ACC) had a week to stew on their overtime loss to Kentucky before returning home, and I'll admit, I thought the week off would give this team time to regroup with ACC play heating up, to get back to form and play like the top-five team we saw earlier this season. Turns out, that week was spent by FSU watching how Kentucky dissected Louisville last week: by getting into the lane, spreading Louisville out defensively and knocking down open 3-pointers.
Florida State (13-2, 3-1) did that at will Saturday, and the result: a cool 11-of-23 shooting for the Seminoles from distance, 32-of-58 shooting from the floor, and an efficient all-around offensive outing that Louisville -- even after making a run in the second half -- couldn't overcome.
Junior guard M.J. Walker led FSU with a season-high 23 points and senior Trent Forrest added 20, both coming to make six of the team's 11 3-pointers. Walker disappeared for a large chunk of the second half while Devin Vassell emerged, scoring nine of his 14 in the final half as FSU closed it down.
All-American candidate Jordan Nwora did his best to lead Louisville back, scoring 32 points, but FSU was firing on all cylinders and production outside Nwora was tough to find. He finished 11-of-15 shooting (5-of-6 from 3-point range). The rest of the team shot a combined 13-of-47. Steven Enoch finished with 10 points, the only other non-Nwora player for the Cards to reach double figures.
The bright side for Louisville is its schedule. It gets Miami, Notre Dame and Pittsburgh over its next three before facing Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium in two weeks, setting up a possible bounceback spot. Florida State's win only improves its green outlook by winning its sixth straight with Wake Forest, Virginia and Miami on deck.