The unbeaten and now second ranked Louisville Cardinals are home for South Carolina Upstate on Wednesday night at the KFC Yum! Center. The Cards improved to 4-0 on Sunday with an 87-58 win over NC Central. USC Upstate is 1-4, with its only win coming against an NAIA school.
The Spartans went 6-26 last season and 1-15 in the Big South Conference. Upstate lost arguably its two best players off of last year’s roster and is one of the youngest in the entire country. The team currently does not roster a senior, and the only junior is a walk on. Ken Pomeroy ranks Upstate as the 346th best team out of 353. For reference, he has Louisville at 2, only behind Michigan State. This team, by almost any way you want to evaluate them, is the worst team that Louisville will play all season. Louisville’s last opponent, NC Central, beat the Spartans 73-64 at home last week.
Louisville has used the same starting lineup in all four games: Darius Perry, Ryan McMahon, Dwayne Sutton, Jordan Nwora and Steven Enoch. Until things change, you can expect Coach Mack to stick with that five.
There is not much that will likely be learned from this game tonight. USC Upstate is the far inferior opponent and Louisville should win convincingly. The hope is that the Cards will build up a big lead early on and will have the opportunity to give the freshmen some extended playing time in the second half.
Louisville is favored by 36.5 points. The game starts at 7:00 p.m. EST and will be televised on ACC Network.
Prediction: Louisville 96 USC Upstate 54
