Louisville Basketball is No. 1 but faces their toughest battle of the season with Michigan. What are the keys to avoid falling to the Wolverines?
When the pairings for the 2019 ACC/Big Ten Challenge were announced, it was clear that Duke vs Michigan State was the premier matchup to watch. Both were preseason top-5 teams with national title expectations. However, with both suffering losses to unranked teams during Feast Week, Louisville Basketball has risen to the No. 1 spot in the latest AP rankings.
At 7-0, the Cardinals are playing great basketball, coming off of a 17-point win over Western Kentucky. Jordan Nwora continues to dominate with a game-high 25 points in a win, while Dwayne Sutton chipped in with 15 points as well. Normally with a new No. 1 team being ranked (already the 4th different team this early in the season), they would be the one having all the attention and conversation. However, the program being talked about is who Louisville is facing on Tuesday night.
With a new head coach and replacing their top three leading scorers of last season, Michigan came into the 2019-20 campaign with a lot of question marks. After this past week, there aren’t any questions regarding the Wolverines now. After beating Iowa State and back-to-back wins over top-10 teams North Carolina and Gonzaga to win the Battle 4 Atlantis, Michigan (7-0) has gone from unranked all the way to the No. 4 team in the country.
While Michigan State vs Duke will still be a big game, Michigan and Louisville is now the more high-profile matchup. This is considered the first real test for the Cardinals this season, while the Wolverines could make a case for No. 1 next week if they get the win. If Louisville does in fact lose, there will start to be some questions about how serious to take them as Final Four contenders this season.
In order for Louisville Basketball to avoid that kind of annoying talk and chatter… here are the keys for them to beat Michigan and halt their momentum.