Louisville basketball: Beating Duke not easy, but possible for Cards

The Three Point Line

While shooting is always wholly unpredictable, Louisville will have to try and keep up with their averages to pull off the win.

Both Louisville and Duke’s roster have unique strengths this year. In all candor though, Duke has a ton and there is a reason they are ranked as one of the nation’s top two teams. Three point shooting though, is NOT one of those reasons.

While Louisville is near the top of the league, shooting almost 37% from three-point range, Duke is very much near the bottom. They are third to last actually, in front of only Georgia Tech and Wake Forest, shooting 32% per game.

With the emergence of effective shooting strokes for big men, Malik Williams and Steven Enoch, and the increased shooting confidence of defensive specialist, Khwan Fore, the Cardinals often times have a player at every position on the floor that is more than capable of scoring from deep. Duke certainly doesn’t have this luxury.

The Cardinals will have to stay accurate from deep Tuesday if they want to pull off the upset. Between Duke’s stellar transition game, elite defense and physical wing and interior play, the three-point shot will have to do all the heavy lifting for the Cards’s offense.

Different than Saturday’s meeting with Florida State, Louisville will certainly get some post up scoring from its two centers. But to rely on that primarily would be foolish. The Cardinals’s best scoring threat and most glaring advantage lies at the three-point line. Chris Mack’s game plan will almost definitely try and capitalize on this disparity.

The entire rotation should be able to contribute heavily to this facet of the game. You have to think they’ll be trying to avoid this at the same time: