Louisville basketball: Bold predictions for ACC Tournament
By Jacob Lane
Jacob Lane: Louisville plays its best stretch of basketball and makes it to the conference championship
Even with Louisville losing two out of their final three games of the season, I somehow feel really confident that the lightbulb has finally turned on for the Cards.
The performance against Virginia Tech wasn’t something necessarily to ride home about, considering the Hokies are one of the worst teams in the ACC in the middle of a program rebuild, but it showed that the team seemed to finally be understanding what Chris Mack was asking for; toughness.
After nearly every conference game this season, Chris Mack has had to answer questions about his team’s reoccurring struggles. The lack of offensive identity outside of three-point shooting, the tendency to let their defensive intensity lag when shots aren’t falling, bad shot selection, blowing leads, letting games get out of hand, turnovers, the list goes on and on. Through it all Mack pleaded for his team to be mentally strong on both ends of the floor as well as letting their defense carry them during bad offensive stretches.
Against Virginia Tech we saw that. And while it was Virginia Tech, with all of the emotion of senior day and all the recent criticism from fans, it would’ve been easy to shut it down. Instead, we got the inspired effort we were looking for.
Playing with that sort of intensity against Virginia Tech is one thing, but doing it against Virginia is another. On the BRL Podcast, I talked about how if they could show similar fight and intensity while taking their game to another level, it would lead me to believe they are ready to make a run.
While the Cards lost in a tough way, they fought back from a double-digit second-half lead and were a few shots falling away from pulling off a huge win. Sure, Louisville blew an early lead and then let bad offense distract them from defense, but overall they showed tenacity and the willingness to compete when things weren’t easy.
Now as we head into the ACC Tournament, I think we’re only going to see that rise to another level. The reason predicting Louisville will play their best basketball of the season is a bold prediction is two-fold. One, Louisville’s not shown consistently they can play elite basketball against elite competition. Two, some might not agree that the performance against Virginia was a positive sign. In fact, many think that game only showed the true colors of the Cardinals in 2019.
Louisville will open tournament play on Thursday against whoever advances during the first round between Virginia Tech and North Carolina or Syracuse, who one of those teams will meet on Wednesday. While North Carolina and Syracuse are tricky games, Louisville was able to take care of both teams this season and shouldn’t have issues a second time around.
Should they advance, they’ll likely face Virginia for the second time in less than a week, this time on a neutral floor potentially even with a healthy Malik Williams. Both times the Cards met Tony Bennett’s team this season there was a lot to be happy about. While the Cavaliers aren’t the same caliber of squad they were last season, they still are a great defensive team with the ability to get every once in a while. Louisville learned that the first time with Tomas Woldentensae scoring 27 points and the second time around had a hell of a hard time stopping Kihei Clark.
In order to beat Virginia, Louisville will have to do a much better job with their offensive sets and attempt to break down the incredible pack-line defense of Virginia. It won’t be easy but a loss fresh on their mind mixed with the motivation to prove everyone wrong, I expect Louisville to walk away victorious.
That win puts them in the conference title, a place they have yet to reach since joining the ACC, which to me already is enough to be satisfied. They would likely be looking at another rematch, either with one seed Florida State or three seed Duke.
Both teams would provide a final four-esque challenge for Louisville and would give us a near mock-tournament situation, having to play against such a level team on a short turnaround. Folks, getting to the conference championship isn’t easy and although it is a down year for the ACC, it shouldn’t diminish that for whoever makes it – especially Louisville.