Where Siva Takes ‘Ya
Last year, Louisville Cardinals point guard Peyton Siva was, by any reasonable measure, a terrible shooter. I suppose his 44.5 percent shooting from the floor is only slightly below average, especially for a guard, but he is not a volume shooter. And I suppose 68 percent from the free throw line is tolerable but shooting barely over 27 percent from three point land is whatever the opposite of tolerable is. It cannot be considered intolerable precisely because Head Coach Rick Pitino tolerated it routinely, since Siva shot around three threes a game. Perhaps the best word is excruciating. Peyton Siva’s outside shooting last year was excruciating. Yes, I like the sound of that.
The funny thing though about Mr. Siva is that fans of Louisville’s Big East opponents were terrified of him. He was the Cardinals most feared player, by a wide margin. And unlike volume shooters who have poor percentages and can catch fire, Siva could simply dribble through defenses play after play after play. He didn’t always score himself but Louisville always scored.
As a Connecticut Huskies fan, Siva was particularly unpleasant for me. In his three contests versus the eventual National Champions, Siva made 19 of 35 field goals, scoring 47 points. If you tried to tell me after those games that Siva was a terrible shooter and a highly inconsistent player, I would have laughed my way out of the room. He also dished out 19 assists in those games and, even though I don’t have the specific splits, it seemed like each and every one of those points and assists came in the final six minutes of each game. That’s my lasting memory at least.
Now I am sure Louisville fans have equally unpleasant feelings towards Siva for how he could follow up those UConn-type performances with real stinkers. He went for 29 points and 8 rebounds against a ranked Western Kentucky team in late December. In the game preceding and the game following against the likes of Gardner-Webb and Morgan State, he scored 4 and 5 points respectively though.
Don’t get me wrong, this Cardinals team is talented and has more than one player they can count on. However, as the point guard, the offensive implementer and the accelerator, I hate to say that Louisville will go as far as Peyton Siva will take them but they will certainly go farther if Siva can make consistent shots. How’s that for saying something without really saying it?
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