El Ellis says being 'embarrassed' by Pittsburgh sparked play against Virginia

Louisville sits at the bottom of the ACC rankings with just one conference win this season, but have improved their play lately versus two ranked opponents. Three games ago, the Cardinals suffered a tough, 34-point loss to Pittsburgh, which according to guard El Ellis fueled their improve play as of late.

“I was very embarrassed after that Pittsburgh game,” Ellis said. “We came out, we didn’t fight at all, they hit us in the mouth and they just kept hitting us and we just kept taking punches. So I feel like that really motivated guys to come out and hit first these past two games.”

In their last two games versus No. 19 Miami and No. 7 Virginia, Louisville kept the game close at halftime down by just three or less points at the break, but could not hold on and finish strong enough to win.

Ellis is currently the ACC’s third-leading scorer, averaging 17.6 points per game and leading the Cardinals in points, assists, steals, and field goal percentage. He’s the Cardinals’ unquestioned go-to guy and matched a season-low seven points versus Pitt in their ugly loss.

But he bounced back resoundingly in their last two contests, scoring 33 points versus Miami and 21 versus Virginia, averaging a 55% field goal percentage between both contests. With Ellis and his team playing seemingly more motivated than ever, hopefully, they can steal a few wins in the remaining five games left on their regular season schedule.

Jim Larranaga discusses what likely added to El Ellis’ motivation prior to defeating Louisville

Miami secured their fourth straight win in conference play on Saturday, defeating Louisville 93-85. The Hurricanes may have avoided their first conference loss at home of the season, but they could not avoid the offensive onslaught put on them by Louisville guard El Ellis. Ellis had just seven points in his last meeting with Miami, making one field goal, but dropped a career-high 33 points on Saturday.

“He probably used that to motivate himself, they hadn’t played well against these guys the last time,” Miami head coach Jim Larranaga said. “I told the players after the game, there were two things that I think highly motivate players.”

Ellis is the ACC’s fourth-leading scorer, averaging 17.4 points per game this season. He had another uncharacteristic, seven-point game in the Cardinals’ previous matchup versus Pitt in the game prior, which Larranaga believes combined with his last game versus the Hurricanes was a recipe for disaster for Miami.

“One, they didn’t play particularly well against us the first time and we won with a substantial margin. And then second they lost early in the week to Pittsburgh at Pittsburgh and they had a really bad game. So that fires you up, well we don’t want that to happen again and we know we can play a lot better. And so they were very focused, played with a lot of energy and I was very impressed with them,” Larranaga said.