Fab Five: Thoughts & Takeaways From Michigan's Loss At Louisville

No. 4 ranked Michigan Wolverines basketball fell to No. 1 ranked Louisville tonight, 58-43, at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville. The Wolverines were coming off seven straight wins to start the season, and now have experienced their first loss of the year.

RELATED: Michigan Falls At Louisville, 58-43

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Many suspected if U-M would have the legs to compete tonight after just three off-days following the three games in three days down in the Bahamas. They flew home to Ann Arbor over the weekend, and we're back in the air last night to get to Louisville. That suspicion was completely valid, and the legs were, indeed, not there for U-M tonight. From the first possession, the quickness and energy weren't there. That did not look like the same team we saw play last week.

The guy that especially didn't look like himself was junior forward Isaiah Livers. He averaged 17.0 points per game coming in, and was held to just three points on 1-of-9 shooting. He didn't play with the same intensity off the ball. He didn't get the ball in good spots, and didn't look like he had the legs to create anything for himself. When he did get a shot off, it looked really flat. The same thing goes for junior guard Eli Brooks, who shot 0 for 6.

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Louisville head coach Chris Mack is known for his pack line defensive philosophy. Before the game, Ty Spalding of CardinalSports.com broke down exactly what Louisville does on defense to make life difficult for opponents.

"On defense, Louisville plays a pack line style of defense, and tries to force long possessions out of teams," Spalding said. "Louisville is one of the best in the country at getting opponents to take the shot clock down, which most times ends in a contested shot. Per KenPom, Louisville's opponents are using 18.6 seconds per possession. The Division I average is 17.2 seconds. That's an excellent statistic for the way Louisville likes to play defense."

That Louisville defense held U-M to just 26 percent shooting from the field, 16 percent from three and .672 points per possession. It's impressive to hold anyone to those numbers, let alone a team that was shooting 52.8 percent coming into the game.

U-M was uncomfortable from the jump, on the offensive end of the floor. A big thing that Louisville did a great job taking away was senior point guard Zavier Simpson on the pick-and-roll. The Cardinals' hedged the ball-screen hard enough that Simpson, uncharacteristically, picked up his dribble much more than we're used to seeing. They kept Simpson out of the lane and didn't let him get downhill.

Huge props to Louisville for stopping Simpson, one of the country's top point guards. In the second half, he did have some success driving in isolation, but the ball movement created by the pick-and-roll that U-M relies heavily on, was not there tonight.

U-M did have some decent looks, at times, but again, legs may have played a part in them not knocking them down. It certainly wasn't the Wolverines' night shooting the ball.