LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — There were a couple of reasons to schedule a marquee matchup early in the season for the University of Louisville men’s basketball team, which will face No. 12 Tennessee at noon Saturday.
One was to face top-notch competition before heading to the Bahamas later this month to face even more top-notch competition. But the other was to create more hometown buzz and, hopefully, bring more fans downtown for a game after two years of struggles both on the court and at the turnstiles.
First-year Louisville coach Pat Kelsey has joked around about the circumstances that led to the scheduling of the game. At one point, he said he thought athletics director Josh Heird had said “guarantee game” instead of “Tennessee game.”
But, in the end, he said it did come down to Heird and assistant coach Brian Kloman selling him on the possibility of a big early-season crowd.
“Josh and Brian came to me and said ‘Game Two, Tennessee,'” Kelsey said. “I’m like Tennessee? Game Two?’ Josh said, ‘I’m telling you, PK, do the game. Let’s play it. The city will show up. The place will be packed. It’s going to be rocking.’ So Josh promised me the place will be rocking and almost packed. You guys got to have Josh’s back, and let’s have 20,000 people at the Yum! on Saturday. We play a great team, phenomenal and well-coached with an All-American point guard. It’s like Noah’s Ark — they have two of everything — and we’re going to need the White Out. We’re going to need the sixth man, and I know the Louisville fan base and the city of Louisville will step up. Let’s make Saturday really, really special.”
After four exhibition blowouts and a season-opening 93-45 win over Morehead State, the Cardinals will get their first tough test under Kelsey against the No. 12-ranked Volunteers. A look at the matchup:
Game at a Glance
- Teams: No. 12 Tennessee (1-0) at Louisville (1-0)
- When: Noon
- Where: KFC Yum! Center
- Broadcast: ACC Network, 93.9 The Ville FM
- Coaches:
- Pat Kelsey: 1-0 in his first season at Louisville, 262-122 in his 13th overall
- Rick Barnes: 176-92 in his first season at Tennessee, 780-406 in his 38th season overall
Why it Matters
Louisville, playing with entirely rebuilt roster under Kelsey, will get its first real test after two miserable seasons that culminated in the departure of Kenny Payne. It’ll be a significant early measuring stick game for Kelsey, and will prove useful in preparing for the Battle4Atlantis Tournament in the Bahamas later this month. Louisville will open play in that against No. 17 Indiana.
Players to Watch
This matchup features standout point guards, each with defensive accolades:
- Tennessee: Senior point guard Zakai Ziegler is a two-time SEC Defensive Player of the Year and a finalist for the Naismith National Defensive Player of the Year. He was also named second-team preseason All-American by Blue Ribbon Yearbook.
- Louisville: Wisconsin transfer Chucky Hepburn brings experience, averaging 9.2 points, 3.9 assists, 3.2 rebounds, and 2.1 steals last year. He’s expected to be a steadying hand in the matchup.
- Kelsey said of the matchup: “(Ziegler) is the heart and soul. … You can just see it when you watch the tape. He just gives courage to the players around him. He’s got such a presence to him on the floor. He affects the game on both sides. I mean, you mention his defensive acumen, just his tenacity and his grit, his ability to touch the ball and disrupt a la Chucky Hepburn. He brings a lot of the things to the table from a defense and really from an offensive standpoint that Chucky does. I think it’ll be a really interesting, cool matchup between those two.
Stats that Matter
- Tennessee’s Defense: The Volunteers are 118-14 under Rick Barnes when holding opponents under 39% shooting.
- Three-Point Shooting: Louisville made 11 three-pointers in its season opener against Morehead State after averaging 16 in two exhibitions. Tennessee is 34-6 in the past three seasons when hitting double-digit threes.
X-Factors
- Louisville: Off the bench, Kasean Pryor has been effective with his agility and ability to score inside and from long range.
- Tennessee: Igor Miličič, a transfer from Charlotte, provides a similar threat as Pryor. Felix Okpara, a 6-foot-11-inch transfer from Ohio State, will test Louisville’s physicality in the paint. Tennessee was led in scoring by guards Chaz Lanier, a transfer from North Florida, and Jordan Gainey in a season-opening win over Gardner-Webb.
The Take
Analytics call this a close game, with slight advantages for Tennessee:
- Ken Pomeroy favors Tennessee by one point
- Bart Torvik sees a two-point edge for Tennessee
- Haselemetrics projects Tennessee to win, 81-73
The feeling here is that a seasoned Louisville team will feed off an expected big crowd at home. The Cardinals have been, in Kelsey’s words, very “intentional” about scouting and preparation to this point, and players have voiced a keen awareness of returning the program to a place of respect. This is a first chance to state that intent on the court. Zeigler and Tennessee’s size and defensive tenacity will pose problems and will no doubt expose some Louisville issues that have been hidden to this point. But I still look for the home team in the end to be competitive and, in the end, to find its way to an 80-77 upset.
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