Men's Basketball Hosts Marshall on Friday Night
November 20, 2014 | Men's Basketball
GAME FACTS - Louisville vs. Marshall
Site: KFC Yum! Center/Crum Court, Louisville, Ky. (22,000) (67-9 in 5th yr.)
Television: ESPNU- Roxy Bernstein, play-by-play; Cory Alexander, analyst
Radio: WKRD (790 AM) Paul Rogers, play-by-play; Bob Valvano, analyst (Sirius 92, XM 193)
Series History: Louisville leads 10-5 (7-0 in Louisville, 2-5 in Huntington, 1-0 neutral)
Last Meeting: UofL 80, Marshall 66 (Nov. 27, 2010 in KFC Yum! Center)
UofL National Ranking: 8th USA Today, 7th Associated Press
Officials: Les Jones, Jerry Heater, William Humes
Next UofL Game: Nov. 24, Savannah State at KFC Yum! Center, Global Sports Showcase, 7:02 p.m., (ESPN3)
Louisville, Ky. -- Louisville plays its second of six straight home games as the Cardinals face Marshall in the KFC Yum! Center on Friday at 9:00 p.m. It is the Cardinals' second game in the Global Sports Showcase, a five-team, round-robin event played at various campus sites.
The Cardinals won their 14th straight home opener in beating Jacksonville State 88-39 as Montrezl Harrell led five Cardinals in double figures with 15 points. Terry Rozier scored 13 on 5 of 7 shooting and freshman Chinanu Onuaku added 12 points and 10 rebounds. Senior Wayne Blackshear had 12 points, nine rebounds and five assists. Chris Jones added 10 points, five assists, five steals and matched a career high with six rebounds in the Cards' home opener.
Louisville has three players averaging double figures. Harrell leads the Cards and the ACC in scoring with 22.5 points per game. Rozier ranks second on the team in scoring with 15.5 points per game while Jones averages 11.5 points per game. The Cardinals are solid on the boards, Harrell and Mangok Mathiang lead the team with 7.0 rebounds per game, while Blackshear and Onuaku average 6.5 per game.
Marshall opened with a 74-55 victory over Jacksonville State on Nov. 14 and beat Savannah State 66-47 on Nov. 16 to win its first two games of the Global Sports Showcase. The Thundering Herd defeated WVU Tech 87-65 on Nov. 18 as sophomore guard Ryan Taylor scored 25 points to lead the Thundering Herd.
Marshall has four players averaging double figures. Taylor leads the way with 18.0 points per game. Austin Loop ranks second on the team with 12.0 points while Shawn Smith averages 11.3 points and Cheikh Sane averages 10.7 points per game. Sane leads the team in rebounding with 10.7 boards per game while Taylor averages 8.3.
Louisville has a 10-5 series advantage over Marshall since the teams first played in 1941. The Cardinals have won the last six matchups, including an 80-66 victory on Nov. 27, 2010 in the last meeting as Peyton Siva, Mike Marra and Rakeem Buckles each scored 12 points to lead UofL.
CARDINAL NOTES:
• Montrezl Harrell was honored as the national player of the week by ESPN.com, CBSSports.com and CollegeSports Madness.com on the opening weekend of the season. He was also selected as the first Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Week for this season.
• Louisville Coach Rick Pitino is just three victories short of 700 collegiate coaching wins. He is one of five active collegiate coaches in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, four of which are in the ACC.
• UofL's 60-26 rebounding advantage vs. Jacksonville State marked the Cards' most rebounds since also having 60 vs. East Carolina on Jan. 19, 2005.
• Louisville's 98 victories over the last four years are the most wins in the nation in that stretch. Louisville is the only school in the nation with three straight 30 win seasons, including a school-record 35 victories amassed by Louisville's 2012-13 NCAA Championship team (30 in 2011-12, 31 in 2013-14).
• Last season, Louisville reached the NCAA Sweet 16 for the 20th time in school history, tied for the fourth-most in the nation. Louisville, Michigan State and Florida (last four) are the only schools that have reached each of the last three Sweet 16's.
• Louisville is one of just eight schools which have won 20 or more games in each of the last 12 seasons. Three others are in the ACC (Duke, Syracuse, Pittsburgh).
