The Louisville Cardinals (17-6,8-2) head down in Tallahassee for a matchup with the Florida State Seminoles (17-5,5-4) on Saturday afternoon.
Florida State enters today on a 4-game winning streak after losing 3 straight ACC games in mid-January. They are coming off an impressive 80-62 win at Syracuse on Tuesday. Louisville looks to knock off another top 25 opponent this week after beating 11th ranked Virginia Tech on the road in Blacksburg on Monday night.
Florida State is one of the taller teams in the nation. They’ll start three players over 6 feet 7 inches and bring leading scorer and 6-10
Mfiondu Kabengele off the bench. Essentially, this is one of the best rim protecting teams out there, and the Seminoles make it really tough to finish at the basket against them. 7-4 Center Christ Koumadje averages 1.5 blocks per game in only 16 minutes of action.
Louisville will likely need to have a good game from outside the arc today. Keeping the big men on the court and out of foul trouble will be crucial though. Against a team this long and defensive, you simply cannot afford to be in foul trouble. Even is Malik Williams and Steven Enoch manage to stay out of trouble today it wouldn’t shock me to see Akoy Agau on the court at some point. I’ll be interested to see how Jordan Nwora is handled today by FSU. It could be a game where the Cards need other guys to step up and score.
Louisville has proven in recent weeks that they can win big games on the road. This team got a win in Tallahassee last season and another against FSU in the conference tournament. This has always been a tough game for the Cards in recent years, but the Cards are 4-2 against the Noles since joining the ACC.
Florida State is playing well right now, but so is Louisville. Let’s see if Chris Mack and co. can keep it rolling. With a win today, Louisville would match its ACC win total of last season with 9. It is February 9th.
The game tips at 4:00 ET and will be televised live on ESPN2. Florida State is currently favored by 3 points.
Prediction:
Louisville 73 – Florida State 71
