Louisville vs. Kentucky: Keys to the matchup between the Cardinals and Wildcats
By Andy Harrell
Coming into the Yum! Center in Louisville Saturday, Kentucky will be not only be coming off of a tide changing win against UNC but will also have the confidence of having won 9 of the last 11 meetings in the in-state rivalry series.
Dismantling a handicapped Louisville team last year, led by an interim coach and a team distracted by off the court issues, Kentucky’s 90-61 victory at Rupp Arena is certainly not the kind of contest we can expect this Saturday at 2pm on ESPN 2.
John Calipari’s Wildcats and Chris Mack’s Cardinals will meet for the first time under those head coaches. This season Kentucky has held position, ranked in the major Top 25 polls from the preseason until now while Louisville has received significant votes and flirted with entering the polls after a streak of significant wins.
This year’s Wildcat team has looked to be a different group of young men than the one that took a 30 point thumping at the hands of Duke in the season’s first weekend. They’ve rattled off 9 wins in 10 games since then, scoring nearly 84 points per contest.
Kentucky is led by a talented young group and one graduate transfer from Stanford, in Reid Travis. Travis is Kentucky’s 2nd leading scorer and rebounder and adds a steady front line presence to a team that leans heavily on its athleticism most times.
Louisville, in turn gets significant contribution from three graduate transfers in Christen Cunningham, Kwhan Fore and Akoy Agau. Outside of that group the Cards are made up almost entirely of Sophomores and Juniors, who collectively lead Louisville in almost every statistical category.
Louisville has found its own success this season with wins against Top 10 Michigan State, on the road against a very good Seton Hall team and at home against Mid-Major power Lipscomb.
In overall record and on the recruiting front it would appear Kentucky has a distinct advantage going into the rivalry game. Louisville though has been sneakily good, with their only 3 losses coming to currently ranked teams.
Kentucky will boast plenty of matchup issues for the athletically overmatched Louisville squad, while Louisville will look to use it’s elite aggression and ball control to outwork Kentucky’s defense.