Louisville basketball: Three biggest wins of 2019-20 season

No. 1 – February 8, 2020 – Louisville breaks the curse against Virginia

Virginia: 73 

No. 5 Louisville: 80

You don’t need me to remind you that leading up to Louisville basketball’s first matchup of the season against Virginia, the Cards hadn’t beaten Tony Bennett and the Cavaliers but one time since joining the ACC. That victory came way back in 2014-15 when the unlikeliest of heroes, Mangok Mathiang, hit a buzzer-beating mid-range jumper to win.

Since then, things have been how do you say, sucky… really sucky. There have been blowouts, there have been nail-bitters, and of course, there have been games with De’Andre Hunter hitting 40-foot half-court shots at the buzzer to keep Louisville out of the tournament. Yeah, really sucky.

This was the year Louisville was going to beat Virginia. In fact, Jacob Lane so boldly predicted that Louisville would beat the Cavaliers TWICE in one season, even knowing that’s never happened. Tony Bennett, the master of the packline defense, has had Chris Mack’s number since he came to Louisville and if there was ever a time to put an end to it, it was this season.

Mack and the Cards came into the February 8th matchup winning nine games in a row looking for lucky number 10 and were looking to do so with a ‘white-out’ and none other than Jack Harlow in attendance.

The storylines were there. The stage was set. The Cardinals were ready to change the narrative.

And they did just that.

However, if you told me that Virginia scored 73 points against Louisville, I’d probably be inclined to tell you drugs are illegal and to seek help immediately. In no scenario did anyone see Louisville getting into a shootout with UVA of all teams. It just doesn’t happen.

Except it did, as the Cards dropped an insane 80 points on the NCAA leader in Defensive efficiency, with Cavaliers opponents averaging only 52.4 points a game.

Another overall strong shooting performance from Louisville, pre-season all-American Jordan Nwora took over for 22 points with him and Perry combining for 7 threes. It was enough to outpace and outlast a Virginia team who refused to go away, eventually finishing their season ranked after winning eight in a row.

Although Jacob was close in his prediction as Louisville almost completed the sweep of UVA in their final regular-season game, watching Louisville and this senior class finally get the Virginia curse off their back gives this game the top spot and recognition it deserves.

Of course in true UVA fashion, they squeak out a win against Louisville and decide to immediately shut the postseason down once they realize they might have a rubber match in the ACC tournament. Cowards.

But seriously, I’m as disappointed as everyone else that this Louisville team didn’t get the chance to write their own story in the postseason. Trying to find the silver lining in everything, I hope these games at least bring some level of joy to your day. Go watch these replays, it might help.