Louisville basketball is set to take on the Virginia Cavaliers this afternoon, and the Cardinals are looking for a massive ACC victory. Louisville is coming off a gritty win in which it had to come from behind after a slow start, and did so without its two leading scorers, Mikel Brown Jr. and Ryan Conwell.
Now the No. 20 Louisville Cardinals are facing the No. 16 Virginia Cavaliers this afternoon from KFC Yum! Center. Louisville got more discouraging news on its starting point guard, as Brown will be out for his seventh straight game, but it got good news that Ryan Conwell is probable.
Louisville is 0-3 against current ranked teams, while UVA has yet to play a single ranked opponent this season. Louisville has earned wins over ranked teams, as the Cards beat No. 9 Kentucky and No. 22 Indiana at the time. UVA enters this game 14-2 on the season, and with a lot of emotion in the air as Isaac McKneely plays his former team, let's break down the odds and make a prediction.
Louisville men's basketball vs. Virginia final odds
Odds courtesy of FanDuel, and as of 7 am ET on Tuesday, Jan. 6
Spread: Louisville -3.5
Moneyline: Louisville -184 Virginia +152
Over/Under: 154.5
Prediction
Expect Isaac McKneely and Ryan Conwell to deliver standout performances. With McKneely having tons of emotions playing his former team, and with Conwell missing the last game, the Cards' two-star transfers are poised for breakout games. Along with the guards, Sananda Fru continues to step up and show why he had such high expectations entering the season.
Aly Khalifa had his best performance a couple of games ago against Duke, but Fru has to continue to have that paint presence for the Cardinals on both ends of the floor if they want to compete. Pat Kelsey is going to have this team fired up for the top-20 showdown inside KFC Yum! Center and, hopefully, Louisville learned a lot from their atrocious second-half collapse against Duke.
Louisville has to find a way to get better looks and shoot more consistently from beyond the arc. The Cardinals are shooting 54.8% from 3-point range but making just 34.8% as a team. Against these ranked opponents, the Cardinals have struggled from downtown, connecting on just 25 percent of their 3-pointers as they went 27-for-109 against Tennessee, Arkansas, and Duke combined.
Virginia hasn’t been battle-tested like the Cardinals, as the Cavaliers have the No. 72-ranked strength of schedule through 16 games. Kelsey had his team ready for the fight in the first half against Duke, but now he has to make in-game adjustments and find a way to scrap out a gritty top 20 victory.
Prediction: Louisville 83 Virginia 78