20. Louisville (11-3)
We keep repeating this every week but Louisville is markedly better than there were a few years ago, punctuating the great work that Pat Kelsey has done in town. With that being said, these Cardinals have been far from perfect, dropping tough road games against Arkansas and Tennessee during nonconference play. After the long Christmas break, the Cardinals were back on the road as ACC play began, hoping to put some of those struggles behind them.
There wasn’t a ton of weakness on Tuesday, with Louisville winning 90-70 at California. Ryan Conwell starred with 26 points, Adrian Wooley added 21 points, and the Cardinals won on the road for the first time this season. Unfortunately, the ball truly didn’t bounce their way Friday, falling 80-76 at Stanford, largely thanks to just 22% from outside the arc. Conwell scored 18 points and Isaac McKneely added 17 points but the effort just wasn’t enough.
The three losses for the Cardinals this season have been the three games with the weakest long-range shooting success. Louisville added some great shooters in the offseason to alleviate those issues from last year but this team still isn’t in that great position. Time will tell if the shooting can be more consistent, but this team already has half the amount of ACC losses as last year. Looming ahead is a home date with Duke on Tuesday night.