Louisville Basketball has played some important games in the ACC, Here are the ones you need to remember.
Louisville Basketball will be starting their 10th season since joining the ACC this coming 2023-24 basketball season. The Cardinals in NCAA Basketball were apart of the Big East conference which housed several powerhouses in college basketball like Georgetown, Syracuse, and Notre Dame. While also having teams that were good college basketball teams from year to year like Pittsburgh, Marquette, and Villanova. The Cardinals left for the ACC along with Notre Dame, Syracuse, and Pittsburgh for the 2014 season.
In the ten years that the Cardinals have been apart of the ACC they have had some great battles and even developed some rivalries between some ACC teams in the years. Louisville has gone through so many trials and tribulations in those ten years from coaches Rick Pitino, David Pagett, Chris Mack, to Kenny Payne being hired. While having their title vacated for their 2013 championship and going through a one year NCAA tournament ban.
The ACC one could argue is the best basketball conference when it comes to it’s history and the tradition it has. Blue blood teams like North Carolina, Duke, to teams who made the tournament every year like Florida State, Miami, Virginia, and Virginia Tech. When Louisville joined the hype surrounding what they would do was insurmountable. Even though, since joining, the Cardinals have been sliding in quality it seems year to year, there have been some HUGE games that will go down as some of the greatest ACC games Louisville has been in.
Here’s five of the best ACC basketball games that the Louisville Cardinals have been apart of since joining the ACC in 2014.
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.
Louisville 82, No. 12 North Carolina 61: January 12th, 2019
In 2018-19 the Louisville Cardinals were under first year head coach Chris Mack who was expected to finish 11th in the ACC. Mack had other plans for them in 2019.
The Cardinals came into the game unranked at 10-5 (1-1) and even lost to Pittsburgh in their last game. Before that loss Pitt had lost 25 straight ACC games, the fact that Mack was able to rile his team and flip the national perspective on the cards is the most impressive part about this game.
The Cardinals started the game 7-7 and 4-4 on threes to start the game and the Cards never looked back after that. After Carolina scored the first 3 points they would never regain the lead and would go on to lose the game by 22 points. Every player got a spot to shine for the Cardinals but the best performance of the game had to be Dwayne Sutton who finished the game with 17 points, 10 rebounds, 7 assists, amd 4 steals. Jordan Nwora and Steven Enoch also finished with 17 points each.
The Cardinals just dominated every faucet of the game. They shot 51% from the field, won the rebound battle, held Carolina to 34% shooting, and only let Carolina shoot a miserable 13% from the three point line.
It was a type of game that set the tone for what Louisville basketball could be in the coming future. While Mack eventually let things spiral out of control with the covid season and the aftermath of it, there was no doubt that Louisville fans believed what he was doing with the team at the time. The 3 point shooting and pack line defense worked its charm in this game and put a smile on Louisville’s faces to see Roy Williams so frustrated.
Steven Enoch’s alley oop slam from the free throw line was the pinnacle of the afternoon for the Cardinals. Carolina was starting to cut into the lead but the Cardinals answered with a powerful dunk from Enoch to bump up the lead for the cards. Louisville set a new low for Carolina that day and it is one all Cardinal fans should remember.
No. 11 Louisville 79, No. 3 Duke 73, January 18th 2020
Louisville was expected to be near the top of the ACC in their 2019-2020 campaign and they stayed near the top of the league throughout the entire season. Wins like this were the reason why.
Louisville started the game with a Rhythm and hardly lost the lead throughout the entire game, while even at one point being up 15 points against the Blue Devils. Duke shut down most of the Louisville starters and held Jordan Knowra to just 6 points on 3-12 shooting. However, David Johnson and Malik Williams off the bench provided the Cardinals with the defensive and offensive firepower that they needed to win this game.
Steven Enoch and Dwayne Sutton also got into double figures in scoring by the end of the game. Johnson provided 17 points off the bench along with 4 assists while Williams provided 11 points along with 7 rebounds. Johnson scored 17 of his career high 19 in the first half to get a healthy 10 point lead on the Blue Devils going into halftime.
Duke would eventually rally late in the 2nd half to tie it at 63. However, the Cardinals kept answering and hitting big shot after big shot. Not to mention that the defense the Cardinals played was fairly impressive against players like Vernon Carey, Tre Jones, and Jared Goldwire. Duke was only able to shoot 37% from the field and a measly 24% from the three point line.
It was one of those games that whenever it was starting to get uncomfortable for the Cardinals, they fought back and went on a run to reassure that they were going to win. It was almost payback for the years previous game between these two teams where Duke came back from down 23 in the KFC Yum Center.
Louisville bested Duke, and it will always one of my favorite road victories in Louisville basketball because of how impressive it is beating a top 3 ranked blue blood in their own arena.
No. 13 North Carolina 68, No. 10 Louisville 78 OT: January 31st, 2015
The Louisville Cardinals were in stride during the 2014-2015 season in late January when the North Carolina Tar Heels came to town. It was 2 seasons after the 2013 championship, but there were still stars on this team including Montrezl Harrell, Chinanu Onuaku, terry Rozier, and Wayne Blackshear. Along with role players like Quentin Snyder, Chris Jones, and Mangok Mathiang. They were also still led by Rick Pitino who had not been accused of any allegations yet.
The Tar Heels came to town atop of the ACC and being one of the more physical teams in the league with players like Kennedy Meeks, Brice Johnson, and versatile wing players like Justin Jackson. However, Carolina was coming into a hostile Louisville environment that was declared a white out on a saturday. Pitino also came out in a fashionable white suit with some scrappy facial hair, so Louisville fans knew something odd was going to happen that night when he walked out…
UNC came out blazing even through all of this though. They led 36-25 at halftime by outworking and out rebounding the Cardinals. UNC led 43-25 with about 18 minutes left in the game and by the end of regulation the score was all tied up at 60. The Cardinals ended regulation on a 35-17 run and Louisville fans in the Yum Center were going ballistic.
Montrezl Harrell finished the game with 22 points and 15 rebounds while also shooting 50% from the field. While Chris Jones added 17 points, and Terry Rozier had 22 points with 10 assists. Harrell had one of Louisville’s all time classic dunks in this game (Harrell has a lot of those). He caught a lob from chris jones that Harrell absolutely slammed down with one hand that cut the lead down to single digits. Ever since that moment Louisville just started making shots and dropped 53 points in the 2nd half and overtime on the Tar Heels.
It was one of the classic marque college basketball games that people will be talking about for a long time. It had it all: dunks, threes, comebacks, an overtime thriller, and Rick Pitino in a white suit. What more could a college basketball fan ask for.
No. 2 Virginia 57, No. 16 Louisville 59: March 17th, 2015
If you’re a Louisville fan and someone says “Virginia game winner” you are probably not having any good flashbacks. Most people in general think of the 2018 senior night game where the Cards blew a double digit lead to the No. 1 Virginia Cavaliers to a banked in three. However, before that there was another last second shot that beat a top ranked Virginia team in 2015 and that is the game I’ll be talking about instead.
Virginia in the 2014-15 season was led by Malcolm Brogdon who is now a big NBA talent and you could even tell back then in his UVA days. Virginia was looking to cruise to the NCAA tourney and try to avoid any upsets that would push back their seeding. While Louisville was looking for a big win to try and bump up their seeding.
Louisville started off the game with a 19-5 run where Terry Rozier and Montrezl Harrell were all over the court making plays. Virginia caught up soon after that, especially after halftime. The game was like a chess match all the way till the final whistle blew. Louisville was able to out rebound the cavaliers and even cause 13 turnovers, which is extremely impressive considering how precise Tony Bennett’s team plays.
Harrell went off against the Cavaliers by scoring 20 points and even adding 12 rebounds to that. Quentin Snyder and Terry Rozier added 11 points apiece while Wayne Blackshear scored just 9 points. Even though Blackshear scored on a layup that would put the cards up 2 with just over 2 minutes to play. No one on either team would scored till the 14 second mark in the second half. Where Malcolm Brogdon hit a big three pointer to put the Cavaliers up 57-56. Brogdon played very well in this game where to he scored 17 points and hit 4 three pointers for the Cavaliers.
The final play of the game had Rozier run around outside the 3 point line and got a screen from Mangok Mathiang who go open and shot a jumper from the free throw line. The craziest part about that shot is that it went in to give the Cardinals a 58-57 lead over the Cavaliers, with hardly no time left on the clock. Mathiang was the hero of that game that gave Louisville one of it’s proudest wins since getting in the conference. Louisville ended up winning 59-57 with a free throw made by Rozier.
The Cardinals have always struggled with the Cavaliers and beating them in such a satisfying way makes it the best ACC win the Louisville Cardinals have had to this day. Louisville has been struggling as of late, but looking back on these wins really shows that they can succeed in the ACC and hopefully someday play competitive conference basketball again.