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Louisville basketball: Tough ACC schedule lies ahead for Chris Mack

By Jacob Lane

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On Tuesday the ACC announced conference matchups for the 2018-19 season. How does the Louisville basketball schedule look?

Chris Mack is going to have a hell of an introduction to the ACC in his first season as the Head Coach at Louisville, especially in the ACC. Today the ACC released the conference schedules for all 15 of it’s teams.

With Louisville already participating in the 2018 NIT Season Tip-Off, a tournament which features an extremely powerful field including Kansas, Marquette, and Tennessee, as well as getting a rematch with arch-rival Kentucky and a Big Ten team at the KFC Yum! Center, the schedule was already looking daunting before today.

Chris Mack and the Cards will get home-and-home’s with Boston College, Pittsburgh, North Carolina, and the defending ACC Champions Virginia.

Woah

The rest of the schedule shakes out like this.

The Cards will get home games against  Clemson, Duke, Miami, North Carolina State and Notre Dame. While getting away games with Florida State, Georgia Tech, Syracuse, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest.

Just like each of the last four seasons (and from now until eternity) Louisville will get two matchups with Virginia, a team that has owned them since joining the ACC (1-7 in eight matchups). Virginia is expecting to return four starters, and several key reserves (including De’Andre Hunter) from a team that went 31-3 on the season (17-1 in the ACC) before being knocked out by 16 seed UMBC in the tournament.

Louisville will also get a home-and-home with North Carolina, who currently has the 9th best recruiting class in the country and second best in the ACC behind Duke, with commitments from five stars Nassir Little and Coby White. Roy Williams is expected to return star forward Luke Maye along with several other key reserves who should step into bigger roles and become known commodities in the ACC.

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When it comes to the home matchups for the Cards, fans have several games to look forward to. Getting the potential #1 team in the country at the KFC Yum! Center will be huge, and fans will get their only opportunity to see star forward Zion Williamson in person. Clemson, North Carolina State, and Notre Dame all return several starters from this season and should be top 25 teams when the season opens in September.

While Louisville has been pretty good at home in the ACC over the past several years, 2018-19’s schedule could present a challenge for the Cards. Every team UofL will get at home (aside from Pitt & Boston College) finished in the top six last season.

The road schedule should be a bit easier (excluding UVA & UNC) compared to last season. The Cards will get matchups against ACC bottom feeders Georgia Tech, and Wake Forest, which should be winnable games. While they also get games with Syracuse, and Florida State, both of which could be in-store for down seasons. Virginia Tech is a toss up, with several starters and key reserves returning.

With just eight players on scholarship currently listed on the roster, it’s too early to predict how the conference schedule might turn out for the Cards. Assuming Chris Mack and his staff are able to land two or three graduate transfers, Louisville could be looking at finishing anywhere from 5-10 in a loaded conference.

Here’s what Chris Mack had to say regarding the 2018-19 schedule..

You can find the entire 2018-19 ACC schedule here.

Next: Chris Mack introduces new staff

2018-19 is going to be a lot of fun. But the summer may be even more fun as everyone waits for the turnout of next seasons roster .

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