ACC Basketball Power Rankings: Duke Blue Devils gelling at the right time

DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - FEBRUARY 10: Teammates Jordan Goldwire #14, Wendell Moore Jr. #0 and Tre Jones #3 of the Duke Blue Devils react after a play against the Florida State Seminoles during their game at Cameron Indoor Stadium on February 10, 2020 in Durham, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /

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LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY – FEBRUARY 08: Lamarr Kimble #0, Malik Williams #5 and Dwayne Sutton #24 of the Louisville Cardinals (Photo by Silas Walker/Getty Images) /

3. Louisville Cardinals (21-5)(12-3 ACC)

The Louisville Cardinals have been in a pretty good groove since electric freshman guard David Johnson (6.2 points, 2.4 assists per game) has returned. The Cardinals won 10 straight games before a slip up on road at Georgia Tech. In that loss, the Cardinals shot 33.9% from the field with no one in their starting lineup reaching double figures in points.

In Saturday’s loss to Clemson, Louisville again turned in a poor offensive effort. The Cardinals got a solid 18-point effort from Dwayne Sutton but the Louisville starting backcourt went 1-for-5 from the 3-point line and leading scorer Jordan Nwora went 1-for-5 from the field in 29 minutes. It is an unusually poor showing for the Cards in two straight games they were expected to win without much of an issue.

The aforementioned Johnson has been one of the few bright spots, averaging 3.8 assists and 2.2 turnovers over their last five games. He was one of two Cardinals in double figures against Clemson and his 16 points led the Louisville comeback effort that fell short at Georgia Tech.

Syracuse is the No. 134 defense in the country per KenPom and that will provide the Louisville offense a good chance to bounce back. The Orange are allowing 80.0 points per game over the last five games—that’s 400 points (!!) over the last FIVE games—and just had quite a bit of trouble containing combo forward Patrick Williams in their loss to Florida State. This bodes well for a nice performance from Nwora.

Even with their two-game slide, the Louisville Cardinals sit at 12-3 in ACC play with a February 8 date with Florida State in Tallahassee looming.