The Louisville Cardinals (7-3) host the Kent State Golden Flashes (8-1) at the KFC Yum! Center Saturday afternoon at 4:00.
Kent State are led by Senior guard Jaylin Walker, who averages 24.5 and 5.5 rebounds through nine games. The Golden Flashes have four players averaging 11 or more points per game. Despite its hot start, Kent State’s only win of note came on November 23rd at Vanderbilt. Vandy’s 5-Star Freshman Darius Garland only saw 2 minutes of action in that game before tearing his ACL. Kent State’s only loss of the year was to Liberty last month.
Louisville enters today at 7-3 after a tough 72-68 win over Lipscomb at home Wednesday night. Jordan Nwora finished with 22 points and 9 rebounds after scoring his team’s first 11 points of the contest. We saw Malik Williams’ most impressive game of the season Wednesday; he finished with 10 points and 13 rebounds in only 17 minutes.
Nwora remains the Cards only double-digit scorer at 18.2 ppg. He also continues to lead the team in rebounding at 7.9 per game. Louisville should win this game today, but I want to see a convincing win from Chris Mack’s team. Louisville beat a really good Lipscomb team this week, but they held a 12 point lead in the second half and allowed the Bison to go on a big run and push the Cards for the remainder of the game. Kent State is off to a great start to its season, but Louisville is the better team and needs to be in control from the start today.
Louisville is favored by 13.5 points. The game will be broadcast live on ACC Network Extra.
Predictions:
Ben: Louisville 86 – Kent State 67
Mitch: Louisville 90 – Kent State 66
