Louisville Visits Virginia in Big ACC Showdown
An ACC showdown takes place in Virginia when the Louisville Cardinals, ranked No. 9 in the nation visit the No. 3 ranked Virginia Cavaliers. This will be one of the weekend’s best games.
Virginia currently is leading the ACC with a conference record of 8-1, but Louisville remains in the mix with a conference record of 7-2 just a game back of the Cavaliers.
Louisville overall on the season is 19-3. Coming into the game the Cardinals have won four straight, including Tuesday night’s 63-55 victory over Miami.
In what could be one of the strangest box scores seen ever in college basketball, Louisville had 11 players who played in the game, but just four scored. Only four players accounted for all 63 points the Cardinals scored.
The four players have been the offense all season for Louisville. Terry Rozier a sophomore guard leads the team in scoring at 18.5 points a game. Montrezl Harrell a junior forward is second in scoring on the team with an average of 15.4 points a game. Harrell also averages 9.4 rebounds per game to lead the team in that category.
Chris Jones the senior guard is scoring 13.7 points a game, while Wayne Blackshear a senior forward is averaging 11.2 per game.
Virginia has an overall record of 20-1. The leading scorer for the Cavaliers is Justin Anderson a junior guard who is scoring 13.9 points a game. Malcolm Brogdon and Anthony Gill, two junior forwards are averaging 13.6 and 11 points per game respectively.
The teams have two different approaches to the game. However, both are similar in they have great defenses and make it hard for opponents to put the ball in the hoop.
Virginia leads the country in scoring defense allowing only 50.1 points a game. Louisville comes into the game ranked No. 20 in the nation in points allowed allowing less than 59 points a game.
What this means is that if one of the two finds a way to be productive offensively, that team could have a huge advantage over the other.
The game might come down to the home court advantage and it is not easy playing on Virginia’s home court.
The pressing defense of Louisville could play a big part in slowing down a Virginia offense that is not that potent to begin with. This game could end up being in the low fifties with Louisville pulling off a nail biter 55-53.
