Louisville basketball: Cards vs. Miami game day central
Louisville basketball travels to Coral Gables to kick off the regular season with an ACC road game against the Miami Hurricanes on Tuesday night.
Expectations are high as Louisville basketball is only days away from their first regular-season game of the season. They are traveling down south to Miami to take on Jim Larranaga’s team, and this will not be an easy matchup to kick off the year.
Miami always seems to give Louisville trouble, even when the Cards have been more talented in past years. The Hurricanes are coming off of a 14-18 campaign in which they were able to win only five ACC games, but Coach Larranaga has much higher expectations for this year’s team and this should be a much more competitive squad. Miami could get the season started off right with an opening night conference win over the no. 5 ranked team in the AP Preseason Poll.
Despite losing three double-digit scorers, Larranaga has got plenty of talent back for his team and none are as important as 5’7 junior guard Chris Lykes. A Preseason Second-Team All-ACC selection, Lykes averaged 16.2 points per game last season and was one of the top scorers in the conference. Those numbers figure to improve this season as the Canes will rely on Lykes to lead them back to the NCAA Tournament. Lykes reminds me a lot of Russ Smith in terms of his speed, scoring ability, and small frame.
Coach Larranaga brings in three solid transfers in guard Kameron McGusty (Oklahoma), forward Keith Stone (Florida), and center Nysier Brooks (Cincinnati). All three guys are expected to become valuable secondary options alongside Lykes. Picked to finish ninth in the ACC, Miami combines experience with some highly touted recruits, giving them a solid shot at getting back to the big dance.
On paper, Miami might look to be a bit under matched compared to a Louisville team that has such high expectations, but they’ve given the Cards fits in the past. On Wednesday, they defeated a small DII program, Flagler College, 86-65 in an exhibition game, but Coach Larranaga still emphasized that his team has so much to learn.
Similar things were echoed in Chris Mack’s postgame press conference on Tuesday night after the Cards narrowly defeated Bellarmine, 75-65. Mack believed that his team needs to improve on the defensive end, attack the basket more, and play with more effort overall. The good thing is that all of these things can be worked on in practice and in games. Louisville wasn’t nearly at full strength, with Steven Enoch, Malik Williams, and David Johnson sitting out with injuries. Coach Mack said that he fully believes Enoch will be back for the Miami game, after sitting out the exhibition with a bruised thigh. Williams is expected to be back near the end of non-conference play and Johnson’s timetable is still unclear at this moment.
This will be a really good test for Louisville as it’ll be interesting to see how the team responds in what should be a tough environment in a season-opening true road game. Early on in the year, all of these games are important steps towards addressing tweaks that need to be made by the players, Coach Mack, and his staff.
We all know that the Cards have the experience, talent, and coaching to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament this year, but they’re going to need everybody to step up and contribute in some form. One thing that is guaranteed is that the Hurricanes won’t back down from this challenge and they are going to put their best foot forward as they prepare to challenge the Cardinals on Tuesday night. With that in mind, let’s take a look at everything you need to know ahead of Tuesday’s game.
Who: #5 Louisville Cardinals @ Miami Hurricanes
Where: Watsco Center, Coral Gables, Florida
When: 6:30 PM ET, Tuesday, November 5th
Previous Meeting and Series: Louisville won 90-73 last year and has won 6 of 8 matchups between the two schools.
How To Watch: ACC Network.
How To Listen: WHAS 840 AM.