Louisville Basketball: 2017-2018 Cardinals season preview

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INDIANAPOLIS, IN – MARCH 19: Head coach Rick Pitino of the Louisville Cardinals reacts in the first half against the Michigan Wolverines during the second round of the 2017 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at the Bankers Life Fieldhouse on March 19, 2017 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /

Non-Conference Breakdown

Dec 29 @ Kentucky

This is clearly the most interesting and most important non-conference game for Louisville. While this annual intense rivalry game is always worth watching, the stakes are even higher as both teams should be ranked in the top 15. This matchup will also feature great perimeter length for both teams as Kentucky’s Diallo, Knox, and Vanderbilt will face off against Louisville’s King, Adel, and Bowen. If Louisville can grab a win on the road, it will set them up for a very high seed in March.

Dec 3 Seton Hall

Seton Hall is a talented veteran team, but they will not have the rebounding advantage that they are used to. This is a bad matchup for the Pirates on paper since their weakness at PG will be exposed by Louisville’s pressure defense. It will be harder to play through Delgado since Mahmoud’s shot blocking ability will alter shots inside. Louisville has another opportunity to pick up a top 15 win.

Nov 28 @Purdue

Purdue is a smaller team (even though they have 7’2 Isaac Haas at center) that could struggle on the glass against a longer Louisville team. Haas is not a great rebounder out of his area and the much more mobile Louisville bigs will take advantage. Having long athletic players like King and Adel guard Carsen Edwards should limit his scoring and hamstring the Purdue offense. Road games are always a challenge, but this matchup favors the Cardinals.

Dec 9 Indiana

Indiana looks like a NIT/Bubble team on paper, but they have some talented upperclassmen in Rob Johnson and Juwan Morgan. Sophomores De’Ron Davis and Curtis Jones will be on breakout player lists, but they would have to make a huge jump to compete with Louisville. Grabbing a borderline top 50 win would only help Louisville’s resume.

Borderline top 100 games: Nov 12 George Mason, Dec 16 N Memphis, Dec 20 Albany, Dec 23 GCU

All four of these teams have a chance to finish inside the top 100, but most likely, they finish right outside the cutoff. The Dec 23^rd game against Grand Canyon has the makings of a trap game since GCU has a veteran team and the game is right before Christmas break. However, the Cardinals have much more talent and should handle the Antelopes.

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