Louisville Basketball: 5 biggest league wins for Cardinals since joining ACC

By Caleb Hall | Sep 6, 2023

SEATTLE, WA - MARCH 22: Montrezl Harrell #24 of the Louisville Cardinals reacts with his teammates after a shot against the Northern Iowa Panthers in the second half of the game during the third round of the 2015 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at KeyArena on March 22, 2015 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images) /

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Deng Adel #22 and Darius Perry #2 of the Louisville Cardinals (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /

Louisville 82, Notre Dame 78: January 16th, 2019

The Louisville Cardinals entered the 2017-18 season with middle of the road expectations. Not because they had a lack of talent, but because former head coach Rick Pitino was fired and David Pagett was brought in as an interim coach for one season to coach the cardinals. Pagett led the Cardinals to a 20-13 record and was one of the first four out in the NCAA bubble that season. It was an admirable try for Padgett and the cardinals that season but ultimately they fell short of making it a successful season. However, there were some competitive games the Cardinals had that year and none other was more impressive than the Cardinals going into South Bend to defeat Notre Dame in double overtime 82-78.

The core trio of this team was Deng Adel, Ray Spalding, and Quentin Snyder. If the Cardinals won a game it was likely that at least one of these three players had a good game, if not all of them. Spalding had a career high 23 points and 12 rebounds, Snyder also had a career tieing total of 22 points and 8 assists, and Adel had 14 points.

Quentin Snyder came up clutch several times in the game and produced a couple important threes to send the game into double overtime and the big 3 point shot that led to the Cardinals winning the game. Spalding also hit a left handed hook that sent the game to the first overtime near the very end of the second half. The Cardinal defense was also Pitino like in this game. They held the Irish to a 38% field goal percentage, had four blocks, and even 6 steals at the end of the game.

This game seemed to give Louisville fans the nostalgia of an earlier era of basketball with a different twist on it. This game almost mirrored the 5 overtime game the Irish and the Cards played in 2013, except now the cards won instead of the Irish. If this was a taste of what was to come then the Cards were in good hands and it would be a game that Louisville fans would remember for a while to come.

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