Hoops Preview: Notre Dame vs. No. 13 Louisville
NOTRE DAME (17-7, 8-4 ACC) VS. LOUISVILLE (19-5, 8-3 ACC)
Where: Purcell Pavilion in Notre Dame, Ind.
Rankings: The Cardinals are ranked 13th in the AP Poll.
Time/TV: 4 p.m. ET on ESPN2
Last Meeting: This is the 34th meeting all-time between the two teams, with the Cardinals leading the all-time series 20-13. Notre Dame won the last meeting 71-59 on March 4, 2015 at Louisville.
Notre Dame Notes
The Irish are coming off an impressive road win at Clemson, who in spite of a 14-10 overall record, had managed to defeat Louisville, Duke and Miami all at home earlier in the conference season.
Going forward, the win placed Notre Dame in great position for securing a NCAA tournament bid, even in a worst-case scenario if they struggled down this final stretch. Nine or 10 conference wins is considered by many the "magic" number, and the victory over the Tigers gave the Irish win No. 8 with six conference games still remaining.
Now the goalposts are moving away from just securing an invitation to the postseason tournament, and more towards improving a potential seed, starting with earning a double-bye in the ACC tournament. The top four teams in the final conference standings are rewarded with rest during the tournament's first two days, whereas teams five through 10 will only receive a first-round bye.
A victory over Louisville on Saturday would be a great kickstart towards Notre Dame staying on the trajectory for a double-bye. The Irish check in at fifth currently in the conference standings, but the Cardinals are one of the four teams in front of them, and Louisville has self-imposed a postseason ban this year in the wake of an alleged scandal involving recruits, players and prostitutes (link).
"From playing against them and watching them a lot, they pressure all up and down the court for 40 minutes," said junior guard Steve Vasturia, regarding the Cardinals. "They're really athletic and play a tough matchup of zone and man.
"They can do a lot of things well. So I think the challenge for us will be taking care of the ball and being able to defend. They have really big guards."
Demetrius Jackson — Leading the team in scoring (16.2 points), assists (5.0) and steals (1.4) per game.
Steve Vasturia — Averaging a team-high 35.6 minutes per game.
V.J. Beachem — Made 60 of 139 three-point attempts (43.2 percent) so far this season.
Bonzie Colson — Ranked as Notre Dame's most efficient offensive starter of the season thus far on Kenpom.com.
Zach Auguste — Averaging a double-double with 14.1 points and 10.0 rebounds per game.
Louisville Overview
The Cardinals are coming off a 72-65 defeat at Duke on Monday, Feb. 8, resulting in just one of their three conference losses on the season. Louisville also fell 63-47 to Virginia at home on Jan. 30, and 66-62 at Clemson Jan. 10.
Rick Pitino's squad is even more well-regarded in Kenpom.com's rankings than the AP poll, checking in at No. 8 overall nationally on the analytics website. They finished an impressive 11-2 in non-conference play while dominating most of their lowly-ranked opponents, with their only losses coming via narrow margins to Michigan State (71-67) on a neutral court and at Kentucky 75-73.
Their defense is ranked 3rd nationally in Kenpom's efficiency rankings, while the offense checks in at 50th in the country. Defensively, their identity stats are holding opponents to low shooting percentages (6th nationally in effective field goal percentage defense) and forcing turnovers (21st nationally in turnover rate).
On the other side of the court, they excel most at cleaning up the offensive glass, grabbing 41.2 percent of potential offensive rebounds - the No. 4 rate nationally.
Off-the-court though, the distraction of the aforementioned scandal comes to the forefront of people's minds. Louisville announced that self-imposed postseason ban just a week ago on Feb. 5, meaning the Cardinals are playing the rest of this season for pride alone.
Outlook
Following last Saturday's home upset of then-No. 2 UNC with an underrated road win at Clemson and potentially another home win over a top-15 opponent in Louisville is quite a tough stretch to ask of the Irish, but hey, they're two-thirds of the way home entering the tilt against Louisville.
The Irish are usually great at home in big games. Have to go with Notre Dame in this one.
Prediction: Notre Dame 72, Louisville 70.
Vegas Spread: Notre Dame by 2.