Louisville basketball picked to finish 11th in the ACC

The ACC preseason projections were released today at Operation Basketball. Louisville basketball was picked to finish 11th.

Chris Mack has refused to put any type of expectation on his first Louisville basketball team for the 2018-19 season. However, he has said on multiple occasions that he has confidence that his squad can be a tournament team.

Unfortunately for the Louisville basketball program, the ACC media poll doesn’t reflect much confidence from anyone outside of the program for the upcoming season. At day two of the ACC’s Operation Basketball in Charlotte, NC, the ACC media projected how they believe the 15 programs in the conference will finish.

Collectively the group agreed that the 2018-19 Louisville basketball program would finish 11th out of a total 15 schools. Duke, who received 52 first place votes, was picked to finish first in the country, while Virginia, North Carolina, Syracuse, and Virginia Tech, rounded out the top five.

It isn’t shocking that there isn’t a lot of faith in the Louisville team, especially considering they will be entering the season with their new coach, Chris Mack. While missing three out of last year’s top four scorers from a team that didn’t make the tournament. Not only that, but Louisville will undoubtedly have one of the most difficult schedules in the country, facing the likes of Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan State, Tennessee and of course all the powers inside the ACC.

Call my crazy, but I just don’t see it. This is a team that will return a loaded roster, though it lacks in depth, that includes junior and former five star recruit, V.J. King, along with rising sophomores Malik Williams, Jordan Nwora, and Darius Perry.

This is a team that I truly expect to see surprise some folks time and time again this year. Behind a new, fun uptempo offense that will allow Christen Cunningham and Darius Perry to get out and run, along with a plethora of outside shooting. Of course depth will be an issue, especially in the front court, as the team only has 10 scholarship players available.

The good news is the season is determined by where a bunch of media folks rank your team. The Cards will get the chance to get their season going in the right direction on Thursday November 8th when they take on Nicholls State.

The ACC also released that North Carolina forward, Luke Maye, was voted as the Preseason Player of the Year and first team All-ACC. Joining Maye on the first team All-ACC are Duke freshman, R.J. Barrett, Syracuse guard, Tyus Battle, Virginia’s Kyle Guy and Boston College guard, Ky Bowman. Louisville did not have a player voted onto either the first or second All-ACC team for the first time since 2015.