The Louisville Cardinals (6-2) head up to Bloomington today for a matchup with the Indiana Hoosiers (7-2) at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
Indiana leads the all time series 10-9, but Louisville has won the last 4 games in the series, including a 71-62 victory over the Hoosiers at the KFC Yum! Center last season. Louisville is 1-2 all time at Assembly Hall.
Indiana followed its blowout loss to Duke with two tight wins this past week over Northwestern and Penn State to start Big Ten play. Five Star Freshman and former Louisville target Romeo Langford leads the Hoosiers with 17.9 points per game. Senior Juwan Morgan is the other double-digit scorer at 15.6 ppg.
Louisville passed its first road test of the season last Saturday at Seton Hall, but this will by far be the toughest atmosphere the Cards have played in all year. Jordan Nwora is the only double-digit scorer right now at 17.0 points per game. Offensive production in the half court has not been great at times this season for Chris Mack’s team, but they have attempted just over 31 free throws per game entering today.
Louisville is coming off a 45 point win at home over Central Arkansas on Wednesday. My biggest takeaway from that game has to be the performance of Steven Enoch. He scored 16 points on 70% shooting and really asserted himself inside from the start. Obviously the opponent was inferior, but it was nice to see him get going offensively after a rather slow start to the season for him. He will have to come up big again today. As always, the biggest challenge will be keeping Steve on the court and out of foul trouble.
This will be a tough road test for Louisville, but I think this is a very winnable game for the Cards. Langford and Morgan are one of the better duos in the country, if Louisville can avoid a big scoring game from both of them it will be in position to come home with a win. This would be another win that could go a long way on Selection Sunday.
The game tips off at 2:30 ET and will be televised on FOX. Indiana are currently 5.0 point favorites.
Predictions:
Ben: Louisville 75 – Indiana 71
Mitch: Louisville 83 – Indiana 74
