To say this is a big week for Louisville basketball is an understatement
Up the road, it’s crunch-time for the Cards.
It’s the final week of college basketball’s regular season and few teams could benefit more from a strong close than Chris Mack’s Louisville Cardinals. U of L was scheduled to travel to Blacksburg on Wednesday night to face No. 22 Virginia Tech, then return home Saturday to take on No. 21 Virginia.
Oops. Word came Tuesday night that the game at Virginia Tech has been canceled because of COVID-19 issues in the Hokies program. As happened earlier in the season on a trip to Syracuse, Louisville arrived in Blacksburg only to find out the game had been called off.
The Cards are 13-5 overall and 8-4 in the ACC. Good numbers both. You might think that their trilling 80-73 overtime victory at Duke last Saturday was enough to punch their ticket to the NCAA’s Hoosier Bubble of a men’s basketball tournament later this month. Maybe, maybe not.
After all, CBS Sports bracketologist Jerry Palm has the Cardinals as a No. 8 seed in his projected field of 68, but Joe Lunardi is not so sure. ESPN’s bracket expert currently has Louisville as a No. 10 seed and lists the Cards as one of the last four teams who would avoid playing one of those First Four play-in games that kick off March Madness. If the Cards aren’t on the bubble, it’s certainly on their radar.
The rub? Well, there’s the fact that heading into Tuesday’s schedule, Louisville was just 47th in the NCAA NET computer rankings. By the NET’s complicated criteria, the Cards are just 1-4 against Quad 1 opponents. Plus, there is that unsightly 85-48 drubbing U of L took at Wisconsin back on Dec. 19 and that horrific 99-54 thrashing the Cards took at North Carolina on Feb. 20.
The Men of Mack own legitimate excuses for both. COVID-19 excuses. The Cards were coming off a 17-day pause/layoff and were without star point guard Carlik Jones when they were mashed in Madison. They were coming off an 18-day pause/layoff when they were crushed at Chapel Hill.
How much weight the NCAA Tournament selection committee puts on such circumstances is anyone’s guess. After all, Louisville isn’t the only program that suffered through an elongated COVID-19 pause this season. Look at now No. 2-ranked Michigan, who coming off a 22-day layoff traveled to Wisconsin on Feb. 14 and beat the Badgers 67-59.
To Louisville’s credit, the Cards are 6-0 against Quad 2 opponents. And three days after the 45-point loss to UNC, the Cards handled Notre Dame 69-57 at the KFC Yum Center, then beat Duke at Duke to sweep the season series from the Blue Devils. Plus, U of L already owns a win over Virginia Tech this season, beating the Hokies 73-71 in Louisville on Jan. 6.
Earning win No. 2 would not have been easy. The Hokies fell victim to COVID-19 rust themselves recently, losing 69-53 to Georgia Tech after a 16-day layoff. They hopped up off the mat to drub Wake Forest 84-46 on Saturday. Ranked 44th in the NET, Mike Young’s team is fighting for its NCAA Tournament life, as well. Not playing Louisville on Wednesday hurts the Hokies, as well.
Meanwhile, Virginia had lost three straight games before beating visiting Miami 62-51 on Monday night. Having avoided the prolonged pauses that visited other ACC members, Tony Bennett’s team was rolling at 11-1 in conference play before falling at Florida State (81-60), at Duke (66-65) and at home to North Carolina State (68-61). The Cavaliers are 20th in the NET.
And Louisville got some bad news Monday with word 6-foot-11 senior center Malik Williams, just back from a foot injury, is out again after re-injuring his right foot in the second half at Duke. A finalist for ACC Sixth Man of the Year last season, Williams had played just 62 minutes since returning Feb. 20. Now he’s out another 4-6 weeks.
Bottom line: With the Virginia Tech game canceled, a win over Virginia (4 p.m. on ESPN2) will probably seal the envelope holding the Cards’ Big Dance invitation. Lose and, well, next week’s ACC Tournament games March 9-13 in Greensboro, N.C. become much more important.
This story was originally published March 2, 2021 at 12:15 PM.
