Louisville basketball is peaking at the perfect time, as the Cardinals have won five straight, as college basketball is exactly one month away from Selection Sunday. Louisville is 19-6 on the season, including an 8-4 record in its conference schedule.
Louisville is coming off a non-conference showdown with Baylor, where the Cards won 82-71, and now, with just six games remaining, Pat Kelsey and his Cardinals have a crucial stretch remaining. Entering the season, we marked this stretch as season-defining, and after 25 games of basketball, this game appears crucial for the Cardinals and the ACC standings.
When looking at the schedule, two opponents will jump out at the fans; however, they will quickly notice they might be getting the Clemson Tigers at the perfect time.
Louisville basketball is getting Clemson at the perfect time
Louisville fans saw their chances of beating North Carolina rise after Caleb Wilson will likely be out for that marquee road game after he suffered a fracture in his left hand. Louisville’s chances rose from 57.8 percent to 59.9 percent after that update, and now Louisville fans will see their chances to beat Clemson have also just risen after the Tigers have all of a sudden dropped two games.
The Cardinals were favored in their last 10 games of the season, but the one game ESPN Matchup Predictor projected to be the hardest was the Cards' road test against Clemson. While that still holds, the Cards' chances have risen from 53.0 percent to 57.8 percent, according to ESPN's Matchup Predictor, after the Tigers lost by 10 to Virginia Tech and by 13 to Duke.
The Tigers have been ranked for the majority of the season, but with their recent struggles, they might fall out of the AP Polls or drop to No. 24 or No. 25. A huge opportunity is forming for Louisville against Clemson, as if the Cardinals can find a way to beat the Tigers on the road it marks as a huge road Quad 1 win for Louisville, while also giving them a huge boost in the ACC standings.
The ACC standings are a close race at the top for the No. 3 and No. 4 seed, as the Cardinals sit just one game behind Miami for the No. 4 seed and 1.5 games behind Clemson for the No. 3 seed. This is one of the Cardinals' biggest games remaining on the schedule, and all of a sudden, it might look very different.
Louisville and Clemson are trending in completely opposite directions. The Cardinals have won five straight, and Mikel Brown Jr. has scored 74 points on 60 percent shooting from the field, while the Tigers have lost two straight by double digits, including a home game to Virginia Tech.
The Cardinals have had the Tigers' number under Kelsey, going 2-0, both wins coming last season: a 10-point home victory and a three-point victory in the ACC Tournament semi-finals. Louisville and Clemson will tipoff on Feb. 28, inside the Littlejohn Coliseum.
Related: 2 sure wins, 2 toss-ups, 2 must-see games for Louisville basketball’s final stretch
For all the latest news and updates on Louisville basketball's 2025-26 season and recruiting, stay tuned.