Louisville basketball: Matchup with Boston College is a must win for Cards

Louisville basketball will look to end their current skid on the road at Boston College on Wednesday night; A game that has become a must-win for a Louisville team in desperate need for positive momentum.

The Cardinals have endured loses to Florida State, Duke, Syracuse, and Virginia in 14 days, causing Louisville to dropout out of the top 25 AP poll.

Louisville must win against Boston College to salvage their potential postseason aspirations. Not in terms of appearance but in terms of longevity.

Louisville has hit a rough patch losing four times in five games and it has produced an upheaval within the fan base causing fans to abort ship.

To recoup some of the lost momentum that Louisville gained when they were a top tier contender in the ACC, Louisville cannot afford to lose to Boston College.

The Cardinals will make the ACC tournament and the NCAA tournament, but the probability of how deep of a postseason run Louisville makes has gone from likely to questionable to unlikely during this stretch.

If Louisville can’t go on the road and beat Boston College, Louisville postseason run will be shorted lived and this slump will continue their downward spiral.

Boston College is 13-13 during season with horrendous losses to mid major teams in IUPUI Jaguars and Hartford Hawks. The Golden Eagles are 10th in ACC with a pitiful record of 4-10 in conference play.

Boston college has lost 11 out of their last 14 games getting outscored by 316 points (1269 to 953 points). Boston College is a bottom dweller in the ACC, they’re not the worst in the ACC but they’re extremely close.

Boston college is 212th in the county in points allowed per game, allowing opponents to score 73 points per game while being 205th in the country averaging 72 points on offense.

The Eagles are led by their back court of Ky Bowman -who is a probable first team all ACC guard averaging 18 points per game in conference play- and Jordan Chatman, who is averaging 14.5 points per game. That is a duo Louisville will have to contend with defensively.

Louisville is superior to Boston College in almost every per-game average. The Cardinals average more points per game than Boston (75.5 to 71.9). The Cardinals hold opponents to less points per game than Boston College (67.9 to 72.6). Louisville averages more assist per game than Boston college (13.6 to 12.3).

According to kenpom.com, Louisville has a prodigious analytical advantage against Boston College. Louisville is ranked 19th in the AdjEM, with a rating of + 20.71. Their adjusted offensive efficiency is 29th (113.6) in the country and their adjusted defensive efficiency is 20th (92.9). Boston college is 107th in the country in AdjEM (+5.58). Boston College is 97th in AdjO (108.0) and 135th in AdjD (102.2).

You can’t expect Louisville to have any legitimate postseason success if they cannot take care care of a downtrodden BC team going into tournament play. This loss would be the nail in the coffin for a team that’s mentally fragile.

Louisville has zero excuses for this match-up. The Cards are the better team in majority of the vital categories, and have no business losing against a 13-13 Boston College team. Coach Mack will have the Cardinals ready to go and they should win this game convincingly.