Louisville basketball: Cards look to make it seven straight against Boston College

Quick keys to the game

Take care of the ball

Boston College comes into the game ranked 25th in the country in steals forced per game and are third in the ACC coming into Wednesday night’s matchup. They are led by forward Steffon Mitchell and guards Jay Heath and Derryck Thornton, who each average over one steal per game.

Jim Christian’s team is by no means a great defensive team, considering the fact that they allow their opponents to score 67.5 points per game, which ranks 125th nationally. However, they have shown that when they can create turnovers, especially steals, they can usually win or at least compete all the way up to the end.

If Louisville comes out and plays uninspired basketball, my guess is they’ll likely turn the ball over quite a bit. There can be no lazy passes or making silly decisions with the basketball, as the Eagles have a real potential of beating you if you give them extra possessions.

Pound the ball into Steven Enoch and Malik Williams

Jim Christian seems to have found a unique lineup that features no “traditional big man.” With center Nik Popovic dealing with back issues the Eagles coach turned to a smaller line up that allowed his defense to switch more effectively and guard one through five, similar to what we saw with Dwayne Sutton at the five earlier this season.

Against both Pittsburgh and Virginia Tech, lineups that didn’t include the now healthy Popovic allowed for Boston College to play more scorers while not sacrificing any rebounding due to the combo of Mitchell and Jairus Hamilton (both at 6’8).

When BC goes up against Louisville, the Cardinals will have a significant advantage of the post in the form of 6’10 Steven Enoch and 6’11 Malik Williams, both of whom are coming off of double-digit scoring performances against Clemson.

In several games this season where Louisville had post-play advantages over their opponent, they haven’t necessarily capitalized. We saw against Clemson how Louisville was able to take advantage of Clemson only having one capable big, and I expect to see more of that on Wednesday against BC.

If Louisville can consistently get the ball into Enoch and Williams, it could lead to a big performance all around on both ends of the floor.

Be yourself on defense

Boston College has been one of the worst offensive teams in the ACC this season averaging a second to last ranked 64.3 points per game. As a team they’ve shot just 40 percent from the field and a putrid 29 percent from three.

There is no strengths to the Boston College offense outside of the scoring potential of Jay Heath, Derryck Thornton, and Jairus Hamilton. When playing at their best BC is capable of beating teams that are good, much like they did against VT, but when asked to score more than say 60-points, things get tricky.

Louisville has been much improved defensively and currently ranks third in points allowed in the ACC, averaging 62.3 points per game. Mack’s team has held five teams under 70 points during their six-game winning streak and considering that BC is much worse than each of those teams offensively leads you to believe that the Cards should be able to feast and take advantage of bad shot taking and ineffective offense.

We’ve seen teams that are terrible shooting teams compete against Louisville this season, USC Upstate and Akron quickly come to mind, and if Louisville doesn’t stay within themselves and play as if they are desperate for a win it will leave the door open for BC to stay competitive.

Predictions:

• Jordan Nwora scores 20-plus points and finishes with a double-double
• David Johnson and Samuell Williamson both finish in double figures for the second game in a row
• Louisville finishes with 10 or fewer turnovers 

Score: Louisville 75, Boston College 58