After two consecutive losses, Louisville basketball is looking to get back on track against the Miami Hurricanes on Tuesday night at the KFC! Yum Center.
If you’ve been following social media over the past few days, you would’ve probably thought that the Louisville basketball program was falling apart.
The Cards are really just going through a rough patch. After beginning the season with a 9-0 record, the Cards lost to Texas Tech at MSG, Kentucky at Rupp Arena, and most recently fell victim to an extremely hot offensive showing by Florida State on their home floor. It hasn’t exactly been pretty in the last couple of weeks for the Cards, but no one said it was going to be easy.
Florida State came into the Yum! Center and dominated Louisville, who had no one scoring the basketball outside of Jordan Nwora. It looked like the Louisville team we saw last season, and we’d rather not see a repeat of that. The Seminoles were spraying from all spots on the floor and eventually, they just pulled away in the second half. The Cards loss put them at an 11-3 mark and it marked their first conference loss of the season.
Louisville should not hang their head over the loss to a quality FSU team. They need to move forward and learn from some of the things that cost them an opportunity to beat the Seminoles. For the first time in weeks, the Cards do not have an entire week between games. That seems like it will be a welcomed change, as the Cards have shown rust when given a lot of time off. On Tuesday night, they’ll play host to a team that they’ve already beaten this season.
A hungry Miami Hurricanes team will be coming to the Ville in dire need of a signature win to help give them hope of making the NCAA Tournament. They’re going to be looking to capitalize on the recent struggles that Louisville has endured. The Hurricanes are not nearly the level of competition that the Cards have faced in the past two games. They are a quality group, but they’re still rebuilding themselves into a tournament contender. Miami comes in with a 9-4 record, including a 1-2 mark in ACC play.
They opened the season with a blowout loss to the Cards on their home floor, and Louisville played extremely well. Miami responded by winning their next four games, including a road win over UCF. They dropped two in a row after that, being dominated by Florida and Connecticut in the Charleston Classic. They went 5-0 in the month of December, knocking off Illinois in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge, as well as beating Temple by one point on a neutral court.
To open January and to fully welcome in ACC play, the Hurricanes got obliterated by no. 2 Duke in Coral Gables, as they lost 95-62 on Saturday night. Plenty of fans should be familiar with some of the bigger names on the Miami roster, especially since the two teams have already faced off once this season. The Canes are led by Chris Lykes, Kameron McGusty, and Dejan Vasiljevic, who all average more than 14 points per game. Alongside these guys, Miami has some quality players who are capable of giving Louisville trouble, and the Cards should not be taking them lightly.
Although they aren’t as talented as in year’s past, head coach Jim Larranaga has proven that he can win big games and put teams into the big dance. Miami has an average roster experience of 1.8 years, and they only returned 47.5 percent of the minutes played and 47.8 percent of the scoring from last year’s team. Larranaga is a veteran coach who has had plenty of success in his career, so he’s not one to doubt.
According to KenPom, Miami is the 89th best team in the nation, which definitely indicates that this team isn’t terrible, but they shouldn’t be a team that upsets Louisville. Pomeroy ranks them as the 17th best team in terms of adjusted offensive efficiency, as well as being the 223rd best in terms of adjusted defensive efficiency. It’s fair to say that this Miami team makes their money on the offensive end of the court. Compared to Louisville, Miami plays at a slightly faster tempo, as Pomeroy ranks the Canes 197th in adjusted tempo while having the Cards at 305th.
After falling from the third spot in the AP Poll to the 13th spot in a matter of two weeks, Chris Mack’s team really needs to tighten up and win this game to stop the downhill slide. After a disappointing effort on Saturday, Mack is definitely going to be looking at implementing a new gameplan to ease the load on Nwora. He has also definitely put his team through a tough couple of days of practice. Hopefully, that translates to the Cards having a nice bounceback game that results in another win. With that in mind, let’s take a look at everything you need to know ahead of the game.
Who: No. Louisville Cardinals vs. Miami Hurricanes
Where: KFC! Yum Center (Louisville, Kentucky)
When: 7:00 PM ET, Tuesday, January 7th.
Previous Meeting and Series: Louisville defeated Miami 87-74 in the season opener on November 5th, 2019. Since joining the ACC in 2014, Louisville owns a 5-2 record against Miami.
How To Watch: ESPN2.
How To Listen: WHAS 840 AM.
Betting Info:
Projected Starters:
Louisville:
G, Darius Perry, #2, Jr.
6-2, 195 Pounds
5.7 points, 2.1 rebounds, 4.1 assists
G, Fresh Kimble, #0, Gr.
6-0, 185 Pounds
4.9 points, 1.2 rebounds, 3.0 assists
F, Jordan Nwora, #33, Jr.
6-7, 225 Pounds
21.0 points, 7.4 rebounds, 1.2 assists
F, Dwayne Sutton, #24, Sr.
6-5, 215 Pounds
8.9 points, 8.5 rebounds, 2.1 assists
C, Steven Enoch, #23, Sr.
6-10, 260 Pounds
11.5 points, 6.9 rebounds, 0.4 assists
Miami (FL):
G, Chris Lykes, #0, Jr.
5-7, 157 Pounds
15.3 points, 1.7 rebounds, 2.8 assists
G, Dejan Vasiljevic, #1, Sr.
6-3, 184 Pounds
14.6 points, 3.9 rebounds, 1.2 assists
G, Kameron McGusty, #23, Jr.
6-5, 192 Pounds
14.9 points, 4.5 rebounds, 1.9 assists
F, Sam Waardenburg, #21, Jr.
6-10, 216 Pounds
7.1 points, 6.3 rebounds, 1.0 assists
C, Rodney Miller, #14, Jr.
7-0, 255 Pounds
6.1 points, 4.9 rebounds, 0.6 assists