Louisville basketball gets first round matchup with Minnesota as 7 seed

Louisville basketball drew a seven seed in the 2019 NCAA tournament and will get a matchup with a very familar face.

Louisville basketball has a lot to be excited about this NCAA tournament season.

A year after missing the tournament completely, and having to sit out of the big dance for the second time in 3 years, it is nice to just hear your name called on one of the most celebrated days in Louisville, Kentucky.

Let’s first stop and acknowledge that, no matter the outcome the rest of the way, this has been an incredible ride for Louisville basketball. The Cards were not expected to make any noise in the ACC, but finish the year with wins over some of the very best teams in the country. In Chris Mack’s first season, there were a ton of highs and lows, but you have to walk away from this season with a ton of gratitude and good feelings about the way the season turned out.

Three years ago, the Cards self-imposed a postseason ban on a probable one or two seeded team in the NCAA tournament, and less than two years ago, Louisville was forced to vacate hundreds of wins, losing Rick Pitino and Tom Jurich in the process.

The fact that the Cards have risen so far, so fast in such insane circumstances deserves all of the respect in the world. We should all be proud to be Cardinals today.

We knew no matter what happened this week heading into the ACC Tournament that they’d be headed back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in two years, and that’s exactly what they’ll be doing as they were named as the No. 7 seed in the East Region and will get a matchup with Minnesota the No. 10 seed.

In order for Louisville to get their first NCAA tournament win since Jacksonville State in 2017, the Cards are going up against a formidable Minnesota team, who pulled off a big upset against Purdue in the Big 10 tournament before falling to Michigan.

Minnesota presents a very intriguing matchup for the Cards for reasons both on and off the basketball floor.

This will be the story of the week and must be addressed first. Chris Mack will go head-to-head with Richard Pitino, a former assistant coach at the University of Louisville, and the son of Rick Pitino. Much like former Louisville teams, this is a squad that is extremely athletic from top-to-bottom, plays fundamentally sound basketball, and presents a challenging defensive scheme.

Jacob Lane wrote about a potential matchup last week, and had the following to say about what the Gophers presents. He wrote:

"Minnesota is a team that really struggles to shoot the ball from both the field (43.6%) and from deep (32.4%), which is the 10th best inside of the Big10. The team’s best shooter from deep is Gabe Kalscheur, who hits at a 38% from clip, but other than that, no one on the season has shot better than 31%. They’ve struggled with injuries as of late, which has really hurt their depth, but they are very strong in their starting five. Amir Coffey, a 6’8 wing who averages 16 ppg, is a potential nightmare matchup for Louisville due to his ability to get to the rim with ease but also make shots in the mid- range. While Jordan Murphy and Daniel Oturu are strong inside, combining to average roughly 25 points and 19 rebounds per game.Where Louisville may struggle is with the press defense, which as we all know very well can be a hinderance to this team, that drops back into a matchup 2-3 zone of sorts. Just like with Washington, that alone is enough to give me a little fear about getting out of the first round. While I think the Cards are a much better team than Minnesota, it just takes a few adjustments defensively or offensively against Louisville to seal the deal. I still think Louisville would be able to walk away with a win."

The Cards and Gophers will go head-to-head in Des Moines Iowa, and whoever wins will advance to get the No. 2 seed Michigan State Spartans, assuming they are able to knock off their first round opponent.

In the East region the Cards are joined by No. 1 seed Duke, No. 2 seed Michigan State, No. 3 LSU, No. 4 Virginia Tech, and No. 5 Mississippi State.

If the Cards can get past two Big10 teams, one they’ve already defeated this season, don’t be shocked to see them make a run to at least the Elite 8, and get a rematch with a team they should’ve beaten the first time they went head-to-head, Duke.