The day has finally arrived. Selection Sunday is here, and the Cardinals and the fans are just hours away from seeing what seed they will be. Louisville basketball finished the season 23-10 after the Cardinals were bounced in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament.
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The majority of the conference tourneys wrapped up last night, except for the SEC and Big Ten tournaments. Now, Louisville fans will wait and see what seed the Cards will get this evening as the Selection Sunday show is scheduled to kick off at 6 p.m. local time on CBS. But, before the real thing is revealed, Joe Lunardi updated his bracket, and while Louisville fans would be happy to see they are a 6-seed, their path to the Final Four would not be in their favor.
Odds stacked high against Louisville in projected bracket
Louisville is projected as a 6-seed in the East region, with the Cardinals projected to play the winner of Missouri and Miami (Ohio). The first-round Louisville should be able to take care of business and earn the program's first win since 2017, but in the second round, they would likely play the No. 3 seed, which in this case is Illinois.
The Fighting Illini are 24-8 and have big wins on their schedule, including Texas Tech, Tennessee, Purdue, and others. This is where things get hard for Louisville. The Cardinals are 0-6 against current ranked teams and have lost those six games by an average of 14 points. This would be a game not many fans would feel confident heading into, especially with Louisville's 1-8 record in Quad 1A games.
After that round, it is the Elite Eight. And well, the No. 1 seed in the East region in Lunardi’s projected bracket is the Duke Blue Devils. While Duke didn’t look itself in the ACC Tournament without its two starters, Louisville’s 0-2 record this season against Duke and its combined 42-point loss have the Cards' fans hoping they are in a different region.
The Cardinals' projected region isn’t one many fans are going to look at and feel confident they can make it to the Sweet 16 or the Elite Eight, but it is March, and anything is possible. Louisville will need Brown to be available this upcoming week if they want to make it to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time since 2015, and they have to shoot the ball well from beyond the arc if they want to win that second round against a higher seed.
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