The calendar year is set to flip to February this Saturday, as the Louisville men’s basketball program is set to face Georgia Tech at 1:45 ET from the McCamish Pavilion.
UofL is in the hunt for the ACC regular season title with just 10 games remaining and currently sits one game behind Duke in the ACC standings.
Saturday is an enormous day for Louisville, as Duke takes on North Carolina at 4:30 PM in Durham. This historic rivalry showdown could potentially be a season-changer for the Cardinals’ ACC title hopes.
Cooper Flagg and Duke's showdown will make or break Louisville basketball's dreams
Louisville and Pat Kelsey group is doing their part and winning games and putting themselves in position for a possible ACC crown. Louisville has their eyes on the history books, as the Cardinals have never won the regular season title in the ACC before.
Duke is on a 14 game win streak (10-0 in ACC play) and has the upper hand with Louisville. Duke has the head-to-head win over Louisville because the Blue Devils won at KFC Yum! Center 76-65 last month.
However, if Duke loses to North Carolina on Saturday, Louisville's path to the top becomes much clearer, but it's not guaranteed. Louisville would be tied for first with Duke, but the Cardinals would still need to take care of their business and Duke will have to lose one more game in their tough schedule to control their destiny.
It seems unlikely Duke goes undefeated in their remaining schedule as they have the fifth hardest remaining schedule in the conference, and hardest remaining schedule of the ranked teams in the ACC.
In UofL remanning schedule they play two teams with an above .500 ACC record. The Cardinals play Stanford and California to conclude the regular season, but both games are at home. Duke still must play UNC twice, at Clemson, vs no.18 Illinois, Stanford and California as well.
The Cardinals schedule heavily favors them to win out, where Duke is due for a potential slip up along the way. That first slip up could be this Saturday against UNC, which would be huge for Louisville basketball ACC title hopes.
A Duke loss this Saturday would stir the pot and make things more interesting and put UofL one step closer to securing the ACC regular season crown for the first time in program history.
This Saturday would be a crucial first step toward taking back control of the ACC race. As much as Louisville fans are hoping for a win against Georgia Tech, this Saturday's rivalry game between Duke and North Carolina is just as crucial. A Duke loss puts the ball in Louisville's court to stay hot, keep winning, and potentially leapfrog the Blue Devils as the season progresses.