UofL 2020-21 Fun Facts!
With the season now officially over, here's a look back at some statistical quirks
Louisville fans had an especially tough end to the season. You could say the season ended 3 times: first when UofL lost to Duke in the ACC Tournament in what would prove to be their final game, then when the Cardinals were the last team out on Selection Sunday, and finally when no teams withdrew from the NCAA Tournament and Louisville lost their status as a replacement team. Now that the season is finally over, I thought I’d take a more lighthearted approach to looking back and focus on some interesting and quirky stats from the season that was.
Carlik Jones ranked 158th in assist rate nationally and 260th in turnover rate per KenPom.com. He was the first Cardinal to rank in the top 300 in both since Reece Gaines in 2002. Jones was the rare high-volume offensive creator with a strong assist-turnover ratio. Not a bad season for the grad transfer!
In the last 2 minutes + overtime, Carlik Jones scored 32 points in 29:49 of game time; that’s a pace of 39.5 points per 36 minutes. He also took 43% of UofL’s shots when he was in during the final 2 minutes + overtime. Despite his volume scoring, he wasn’t that efficient…he had an effective FG% of 41% in these late game situations.
86% of Carlik Jones’ made field goals were unassisted (97 of 113), the highest percentage of any Cardinal in the past 10 years. Jones had to create his own looks despite the presence of a second point guard in David Johnson.
Samuel Williamson hit 50.7% of his 2 point jumpers, the highest percentage for any Cardinal with at least 20 made 2 point jumpers since Chinanu Onuaku in 2015-16 (51.8%); those are the only 2 Cards to hit >50% in the last 10 years. Williamson has proven to be a midrange ace and one of the few players who can score efficiently in that area.
Dre Davis ranked 8th in the entire country in points per possession scored on post ups, scoring 1.385 points per post up and hitting 70% of his shots. Davis only had 13 post ups all season, but Louisville may want to consider using him in this role more next season.
The only Cardinals who shot better in halfcourt than in transition (min 10 transition shots) were Quinn Slazinksi (46% in transition, 51% in halfcourt) and David Johnson (46% in transition, 49% in halfcourt). In the 2019-20 season, Johnson hit 58% of his transition shots and 49% in halfcourt, but he struggled to get to the rim in transition this season.
JJ Traynor and Jae’lyn Withers only played together for 84 total possessions all season, but UofL outscored their opponents by 38 points during that time including a +4 in 5 possessions in the ACC Tournament loss to Duke. The Traynor/Withers combo was tremendously effective in limited time.
The 3 Louisville lineups who outscored opponents the most this season all had Carlik Jones, Dre Davis, and JJ Traynor in them. Despite putting up the most total plus/minus, they were only the 3rd, 7th, and 8th most played lineups.
Freshmen and Sophomores accounted for 79.4% of UofL’s minutes played this season, the most since complete data became available in 1997. Louisville was a shockingly young team this season, even by modern college basketball standards.
This was the 2nd year in a row Louisville did not have a rotation player average 5 fouls per 40 minutes. Chris Mack had never a team achieve that before the last 2 years. Despite playing less than 30 minutes only once all season, Carlik Jones never finished a game with more than 3 personal fouls, and only Jae’lyn Withers fouled out more than once (4 times).
The end of the season was a series of letdowns, but overall the Cardinals battled through injuries, COVID pauses, and the vagaries of youth. Good things are ahead for the Louisville basketball program with this collection of precocious young talent.