Preston Knowles

Preston Knowles - Knowles is a point guard only because he's small. If he could be a shooting guard, he would. Knowles averaged healthy numbers of 14.6 points, 3.9 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 2.0 turnovers and 1.9 steals per game, particularly impressive in the Big East. But Knowles did it on 38% shooting - while he can get open off of curls, and/or spot up on the perimeter, and occasionally shoot off the dribble, he can't do anything within the paint. Knowles almost never got to the free throw line, never really tried to, and is a combo guard in a point guard's body. Nevertheless, Knowles excelled as a defender, and became a popular figure due to his hustle and intensity. And this dance.

Not an awful lot was expected of Louisville this season, due to a lack of blue chip recruits, no returning starters, and no clear-cut future pros/go-to offensive players. But it appears Rick Pitino knew what he was doing. Rather than load up on stars, they just loaded up on players. Now, the Cardinals run 11 or 12 deep, and pressure the bejeezus out of you.

In the backcourt, Preston Knowles (now a senior, and the only one on the team) is the leading scorer at 14.8 points per game. It is, of course, mostly done via the three pointer, because that is what Preston Knowles does. He has not developed into much of a ball handler - he just sticks to what he knows. Threes, getting open for threes, and defense. Sophomore Peyton Siva plays the point, and despite his age, he's already better than Edgar Sosa ever was. He is very athletic, has plenty of flair, good ball handling skills, relentless defensive pressure, the ability to get to the basket, the touch to finish when he gets there, decent court vision, and a willingness to share it. Louisville are third in the nation in assists, and Siva, with his 5.3 per game, is a large part of why. If he can now learn to shoot and maybe grow five inches, that's even better.