Coming home as the number one team in the land, the Louisville basketball team is set for their toughest test of the young season, as the Michigan Wolverines come to town for a prime time Tuesday night matchup.
It has not happened since January of 2013, but on Tuesday night, Louisville basketball will hit the hardwood as the top-ranked team in the country. The KFC Yum! Center will be rocking, and the crowd will be brimming with white. Louisville avoided disappointment on Black Friday by going to Nashville and handling Western Kentucky in a 71-54 win.
There were stretches of the game where it looked like the Hilltoppers were coming back and going to make it close, but the Cards never folded. Louisville jumped out to an early 9-0 lead in the first few minutes of the game, and they continued to keep WKU at bay en route to a 37-23 halftime lead. The Cards offense struggled in the first ten minutes of the second half, as the Hilltoppers cut the lead to nine points with 9:35 to play.
Unlike the Akron game, the Cards were not going to allow their opponent to come back and make it a game. The offense still has room for improvement, the defense looks a lot better, and fouling still looks like an issue, but Louisville is 7-0 and has handled all of its games thus far. Jordan Nwora led the team in scoring with 25 points, and Dwayne Sutton came out extremely hot while pouring in 15 points.
As they head home, the Cards have a huge test in their first game at the top of the mountain, and it’s undoubtedly their most difficult game to date. They’re hosting the soon-to-be ranked Michigan Wolverines in their annual ACC/Big Ten challenge game. The Wolverines are returning to the mainland after winning the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas. They weren’t expected to do much in the tournament, considering it was a stacked field, but Michigan clearly proved its worth as a top ten team in the nation.
They looked dominant as they handled Iowa State, sixth-ranked North Carolina, and eighth-ranked Gonzaga. Before the Feast Week tournament began, the Wolverines had notched a solid win over potential NCAA tournament team, Creighton. Michigan is a very good basketball team and this will be an exciting matchup for both teams.
When John Beilein left Michigan for the Cavaliers, people believed that this season might be a down year for the basketball program. All of a sudden, it looks like an up year in Ann Arbor. Fab Five member Juwan Howard has quickly built the program into one of his own, and they’re playing with a swagger that Beilein’s teams lacked. Losing their top three scorers from last year’s squad, Howard has brought in a group comprised of Beilein leftovers and some of his own players to continue what has been a solid stretch of seasons for Michigan hoops.
Michigan welcomed in two solid four-star prospects in their recruiting haul over the offseason. While neither ranked inside the top 100, Cole Bajema and Franz Wagner will be solid players for Howard to build around for years to come. Wagner is the brother of Mo Wagner, the man who led the Wolverines to a win over the Cards in the 2017 NCAA Tournament. Bajema has not played much throughout the young season, and it remains to be seen if he’ll see action against the Cardinals.
Michigan has four players scoring in double-figures so far this season, with Isaiah Livers, Eli Brooks, Jon Teske, and Zavier Simpson carrying the scoring load for them. They also have heavily utilized bench pieces in David DeJulius, Colin Castleton, Adrien Nunez, Brandon Johns Jr., and Wagner. With all of this talent, it’s easy to see why the Wolverines were projected to make the NCAA Tournament in the preseason. But it’s hard to understand how they were so underrated this early on. The Wolverines have climbed up to the 12th spot in the KenPom rankings, and they look like a team that could go even higher.
There was certainly a mix of positives and negatives from the Cards game against WKU, as the team looked unstoppable in some stretches while looking rough in others. They will look to play a complete game against Michigan, and they will need to do so if they want to walk away with their number one ranking still intact. With that in mind, let’s take a look at everything you need to know ahead of the game.
Who: No.1 Louisville Cardinals vs. Michigan Wolverines
Where: KFC Yum! Center (Louisville, Kentucky)
When: 7:30 PM ET, Tuesday, December 3rd
Tickets: As low as $31 per StubHub.com
Previous meeting and series: Michigan defeated Louisville 73-69 in the 2017 NCAA Tournament. The Cardinals lead the all-time series 3-1.
How to watch: ESPN. (Dave O’Brien and Dick Vitale on the call)
How to listen: WHAS 840 AM.
Projected starters:
Louisville:
G, Darius Perry, #2, Jr., 6-2, 195 Pounds
6.7 points, 2.3 rebounds, 5.7 assists
G, Ryan McMahon, #30, Sr., 6-0, 180 Pounds
11.0 points, 0.9 rebounds, 2.1 assists
F, Jordan Nwora, #33, Jr., 6-7, 225 Pounds
21.9 points, 6.9 rebounds, 1.0 assists
F, Dwayne Sutton, #24, Sr., 6-5, 215 Pounds
11.1 points, 8.4 rebounds, 1.3 assists
C, Steven Enoch, #23, Sr. , 6-10, 260 Pounds
10.9 points, 7.9 rebounds, 0.4 assists
Michigan:
G, Zavier Simpson, #3, Sr., 6-0, 190 Pounds
12.3 points, 4.7 rebounds, 9.7 assists
G, Eli Brooks, #55, Jr., 6-1, 185 Pounds
12.9 points, 2.6 rebounds, 2.7 assists
F, Isaiah Livers, #2, Jr., 6-7, 235 Pounds
17.0 points, 3.0 rebounds, 1.3 assists
F, Franz Wagner, #21, Fr., 6-8, 205 Pounds
6.3 points, 4.0 rebounds, 1.3 assists
C, Jon Teske, #15, Sr., 7-1, 260 Pounds
13.3 points, 9.7 rebounds, 1.1 assists