Louisville basketball: Despite hype, Cards picked to finish third behind Duke & UNC

Louisville basketball was picked to finish third in the ACC in 2019-2020 at ACC Operation Basketball. Can the Cards live up to the hype?

There hasn’t been this much hype surrounding a Louisville basketball team leading into a season since 2014-15 when Louisville looked like a potential Final Four caliber squad behind returning stars Montrezl Harrell and Terry Rozier. But here we are in just year two of the Chris Mack era talking about a potential run to the Final Four.

When Vince Tyra pulled the trigger on hiring Mack, we knew that the expectation was for Louisville basketball to be restored to its previous place amongst the top blue blood’s in college basketball. However, with the FBI Investigation still looming over the program and the previous scandals taking a toll on the fanbase and recruiting, it looked like Mack could be in for a long rebuild.

Thanks to a talented crop of players who decided to stick with the new coach, a couple of grad-transfers who needed an opportunity, and great recruiting the Louisville basketball program looks primed to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament in 2020.

The hype all summer has been real. Some of college basketball’s biggest talking heads have logged predictions on Louisville and their chances to not only win the ACC but also make a return to the Final Four.

However, when you’re talking about the ACC three other names typically come to mind before Louisville – Duke, North Carolina, and Virginia. Even with Louisville returning six players and adding a top 15 recruiting class all summer I’ve been waiting to see what the media thought about the Cards chances.

Now with ACC Operation basketball nearly completed, we know now just that .

As expected, the media ultimately decided that despite losing tons of talent from last seasons teams that Duke and North Carolina were more likely to be the better teams come the end of the season picking Duke to win the conference and UNC to finish second.

On paper I get it. Duke and North Carolina are traditional ACC schools who have been powerhouse programs year-after-year, even in years where they are replacing tons of proven talent, with inexperienced high school all-stars. While Louisville is the new kid on the block who has “some hype” after years of not competing at Duke and UNC’s level.

Since joining the conference back in 2014, Louisville’s finished higher than fourth just once while at least Duke or North Carolina have made it every single season, and finished in the top four at the same time twice.

Duke and North Carolina have shiny new toys who will bring a ton of attention like Vernon Carey, Cole Anthony, Matthew Hurt, and Cassius Stanley – while Louisville has proven, three and four-year veterans like Jordan Nwora, Steven Enoch, and Dwayne Sutton. It makes sense that the “projected star power” for Duke and UNC would help guide national ACC media to make that vote, despite Louisville looking like the more well-rounded and veteran team.

I also understand that Louisville still has a ton to prove to the rest of the conference under Chris Mack. Though they return a ton of talent and a great recruiting class, too many media members, coaches, players, fans, etc. watched Louisville collapse game after game to finish out the season while Duke and UNC finished strong. All of it makes sense.

At the end of thee day, projections don’t mean anything when it comes to standings – that goves for Louisville too. What matters is who is clicking at the right time as the 2019-2020 season rolls toward the ACC Tournament and NCAA Championship. Hopefully, more than anything these standings serve as a reminder that hype is noise and Louisville will have to prove that they can play with the big boys of the ACC.