Louisville basketball: 3 locks and 3 bold predictions vs. Wake Forest
By Jacob Lane
Louisville basketball is back in action on Wednesday night as they take on the Demon Deacons of Wake Forest. We give our three locks and three bold predictions for the Cards vs. Wake.
Louisville basketball put together one hell of a performance this past Saturday when they traveled to Raleigh and took down Kevin Keatts’ desperate North Carolina State team.
It wasn’t a pretty game, at least not early on, as Louisville struggled to get past turnovers and fouls, starting with 10 fouls and 10 turnovers in the first 10 minutes of the game. Thankfully for them, Ryan McMahon’s hot shooting saved them from a sleepy performance as he came off of the bench to hit a career-high seven three’s on way to 23 points.
McMahon was electric for Louisville giving them arguably one of their most dominant stretches of shooting in a season that has seen several from McMahon, Jordan Nwora and others for the Cards. At one point the redshirt senior hit three three’s in a row to push the game to a double-digit lead (including an incredible step back) that the Cards would never relinquish. Louisville also got nice performances from Fresh Kimble and Malik Williams as well as Nwora who finished with 14 points and nine rebounds but struggled offensively.
Now with their 19th win behind them, the Cards will return home for a two-game stretch starting on Wednesday night against the ACC’s last-place Wake Forest Demon Deacons.
To be blunt, the Deacons have been pretty bad this season in what should likely be the last year coaching for Danny Manning. They currently sit at 10-11 overall and 3-8 in ACC play and are coming off of losing six of their last eight games.
The Deacons will come into the KFC Yum! Center riding a one-game winning streak after knocking off Clemson 56-44 and will look to catch the Cards looking ahead to their matchup with Virginia.
Though they have struggled this season Wake Forest does have a very talented and capable scoring guard in Brandon Childress who currently ranks ninth overall in scoring in the ACC at 15.4 points per game. Along with senior Andrien White and big man Olivier Sarr, Wake Forest is capable of putting together a big night offensively and challenging Louisville if they don’t come ready to play.
With all that in mind, let’s take a look at our bold predictions and locks for the Cards vs. Wake Forest.