5 teams we’d like to see on Louisville basketball’s schedule in 2019-2020

Louisville basketball’s 2019-20 nonconference schedule is starting to come together and it’s looking extremely tough. Who else would fans want to see the Cards add to the schedule?

The 2018-2019 Louisville basketball schedule was one of the most difficult schedules the Cards have had in quite some time, one that featured matchups against 13 ranked teams including 12 against opponents who were in the top 10 at some point or another during the year.

Chris Mack shared the fact that he loved the challenging schedule on multiple occasions, citing that it helped him gauge how good his team was as well as helping to prepare them for ACC Tournament play and the Big Dance itself.

Finishing the season 19-12, the Cards strong non-conference schedule and big wins against Michigan State, UNC, Virginia Tech, and others helped them earn a seven seed in the NCAA Tournament. While they ultimately weren’t able to parlay that strong schedule into any tournament wins, we got a glimpse of how Chris Mack and his teams handled big time opponents.

Now heading into the 2019-2020 season, the Cards schedule is shaping up to be just as challenging as it was last year, lacking no shortage of high-quality teams.

With perennial top 10 and arch-rival Kentucky on the schedule annually, a series against up-and-coming Western Kentucky, already penciled in beginning in 2019 in Nashville, a matchup against a likely top 10 to 15 team from the Big Ten in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, we knew at least a few of the bigger opponents on the schedule for the Cards.

We also learned a few weeks back that Mack’s team would be headed to New York City participating in the Jimmy V Challenge, with Indiana, UConn, and Texas Tech but at the time didn’t know who the opponent would be. Now we know the Cards will add another likely top 15 team to the schedule when they go head-to-head with Texas Tech, the nation’s defending runner-up, who once again will feature a loaded roster.

https://twitter.com/LouisvilleMBB/status/1129077884772073472

As of now, we know six of Louisville’s 12-13 non-conference opponents (the total number will go down this year due to the increase in ACC games, and could vary depending upon if the Cards play any tournament/round-robin games). Knowing that Mack likes to play tough, who else could Louisville add to the schedule? For now, we’ll have to wait and see.

In the meantime, we’ve put together a list of 5 teams that we would like to see on the Louisville non-conference schedule in 2019-2020.