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Louisville Basketball: 3 bold predictions for Virginia

By Nick Conner

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA - January 31: Ryan McMahon #30 of the Louisville Cardinals passes around Mamadi Diakite #25 of the Virginia Cavaliers in the first half during a game at John Paul Jones Arena on January 31, 2018 in Charlottesville, Virginia. (Photo by Ryan M. Kelly/Getty Images)
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA - January 31: Ryan McMahon #30 of the Louisville Cardinals passes around Mamadi Diakite #25 of the Virginia Cavaliers in the first half during a game at John Paul Jones Arena on January 31, 2018 in Charlottesville, Virginia. (Photo by Ryan M. Kelly/Getty Images) /
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Louisville hits 8+ three pointers

Louisville has been less than stellar shooting the ball since falling apart against Duke. The Cards shot a slim 36% from the floor against Clemson while quietly shooting 46% from deep (6/13). The shooting woes carried over as the Cards established zero offensive weapon against the vaunted Syracuse 2-3. Louisville hit only 8(!) field goals and shot a BRUTAL 31% from inside the line and 21% from deep (6-28). Louisville was baited into taking contested (and poorly timed) threes against the zone and seemed more than content laying brick after brick in the Carrier Dome.

But, the Cards have been a good shooting team all year. The Cards’ picked apart Duke just over a week ago and showed they can run effective stuff against the best. Teams simply have slumps and Saturday is when the Cards will break free.

Virginia is rated the third best defense in the land according to KenPom and is certainly the best defense in the loaded ACC. But the Cards are due. Jordan Nwora and Dwayne Sutton always seem to shoot well when the bright lights are on and when the games are the biggest. If Nwora hits a few before the under-16 tv timeout: watch out.

Chris Mack’s offensive sets honestly match up really well against Virginia’s pack-line defense with tons of downscreens and side to stuff movement that should find success against the Hoos. If this season has shown us anything (see: Duke game) Chris Mack will have an offensive gameplan that will work and will create open looks. The Cards must knock down those open looks and I believe they will. If the Cards go down tomorrow don’t expect it to be because of another poor shooting performance.

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