Louisville basketball is taking on the Baylor Bears this afternoon in a February non-conference showdown. The Cardinals have a huge opportunity to earn a marquee win this afternoon, as while the Bears may be 13-11 on the season, many college basketball fans know this is no average team.
Baylor is led by two future NBA first-round draft picks, Cameron Carr and Tounde Yessoufou, who average 39 points per game. Louisville has a lot on the line, not just this afternoon but in every remaining game, as the Cardinals try to climb up the seeding ladder and earn a seed with a better path to the Final Four.
Joe Lunardi recently updated his Bracketology prediction, and Louisville fans will see the Cardinals are slowly getting closer and closer to the seed they want.
Louisville basketball has a path to the No. 3 seed
The Cardinals have been placed at the No. 6 seed for quite some time now, Louisville’s impressive four-game win streak, including their dominant 41-point victory over North Carolina State, caused Lunardi to move Louisville up to a No. 5 seed.
Now, entering the season, if Cardinals fans heard they are projected as a 5-seed in the middle of February, they would be quite disappointed. However, Pat Kelsey has this team peaking at the perfect time, and the goal is to get up to one or even two more seeds. The 3-seeds path is much more favorable in the March Madness bracket, as they would play the No. 14 seed in round 1 and the No. 6 or No. 11 seed in round 2.
As of right now, the No. 5 and No. 6 seeds are the two seeds that often have those crazy NCAA Tournament upsets, and in Lunardi’s Bracketology, the Cards are projected to go up against Kasean Pryor’s former team, the USF Bulls.
Louisville has an incredibly high ceiling, and it all came out against North Carolina State. The fans have made it clear they need to see the same intensity and energy this afternoon to believe how far this team truly can go, but with opportunities still against North Carolina, Clemson, and Miami, this Cards team has a path to a No. 3 or No. 4 seed.
Lunardi moving the Cardinals up to the No. 5 seed is a great sign that Louisville is trending in the right direction toward that coveted No. 3 or No. 4 seed. The Cardinals will need to continue this win streak and earn a win over Clemson or North Carolina, plus go on a run in the ACC Tournament for them to get that high, but if the backcourt plays like they are capable of and the frontcourt continues to dominate the paint this team has a path to be even higher than Lunardi’s projected No. 5 seed.