Pat Kelsey brought his Cardinals to Durham hunting revenge for Duke’s 84–73 win in Louisville earlier this month. What they got instead inside Cameron Indoor was a nightmare. The Blue Devils controlled the game from the opening tip, smothered Louisville for 40 minutes, and turned the rematch into an 83–52 blowout.
“We got our butt kicked. It’s about the extent of my statement,” head coach Pat Kelsey said in the post-game conference. “I don’t have much else to say, other than it was a b-tt-kicking. Credit Duke for that. Every metric that you would look at that speaks to a b-tt-kicking. That’s what the stat sheet says.”
And he was right about it. Duke shot 51 percent from the field, dominated the glass 47–26, and crushed Louisville 42–10 in points in the paint. They also turned 12 Cardinal turnovers into 12 points. On the other end, Louisville’s offense completely fell apart. The Cardinals shot a season-low 30 percent from the field and went only 5-of-20 inside the arc…