Men's Basketball Returns Home to Host Virginia Tech on Saturday Afternoon

GAME 17
Date: Jan. 13, 2018
Time: 4:05 p.m.
Site: KFC Yum! Center/Crum Court, Louisville, Ky. (22,000) (125-16 in 8th year)
Television: ESPN2 - Doug Sherman, play-by-play; Jimmy Dykes, analyst.
Radio: WKRD (790 AM) Paul Rogers, play-by-play; Luke Hancock, analyst (Sirius
channel 84, XM 84, Internet 84)
Series History: UofL leads 31-8 (16-3 in Louisville, 14-3 in Blacksburg, 1-2 neutral)
Last Meeting: UofL 94, Virginia Tech 90 (Feb. 18, 2017 at Blacksburg, Va.)
UofL National Ranking: unranked
Officials: Roger Ayers, Michael Stephens, Bill Covington, Jr.
Next UofL Game: Jan. 16 at Notre Dame, South Bend, Ind., 7 p.m. ET (ESPN2)

Louisville will return to the KFC Yum! Center for its lone home game amidst a four-game stretch as the Cardinals face Virginia Tech on Saturday. Louisville (12-4, 2-1 ACC) won for the eighth time its last 10 games as the Cardinals beat No. 23 Florida State 73-69 in Tallahassee, Fla. on Wednesday. It was UofL's first road victory over a Top 25 opponent since 2014, when the Cardinals won 84-71 at SMU on March 5, 2014. Deng Adel totaled 16 points, six rebounds and five assists for the Cards and Ryan McMahon contributed 11 points off the bench, including eight points in the final five minutes.

Deng Adel leads the Cardinals in scoring with 15.1 points per game. Quentin Snider ranks second on the team, averaging 12.2 points per game while dishing out a team best 61 assists. Spalding leads the team on the boards with 9.3 rebounds per game and ranks third on the team in scoring with 11.4 points per game. Freshman Jordan Nwora leads the team from behind the arc, shooting 40 percent on the year.

Virginia Tech (13-4, 2-2 ACC) has won four of its last six games, including an 83-75 victory at Wake Forest on Jan. 10 in its last outing as the Hokies connected on 50.9 percent from the field, including 12-of-28 three-pointers. Ahmed Hill led Virginia Tech with 21 points.

Virginia Tech, one of the Cardinals' four ACC repeat opponents this season, leads the nation in field goal percentage (.522) and is 18th in scoring offense (85.8), 18th in assists per game (17.8) and 23rd in three-point field goal percentage (.403). Virginia Tech is No. 44 in the Sagarin Ratings, No. 47 by Ken Pomeroy and No. 77 in the RPI through Jan. 10.

Louisville leads 31-8 in its series against Virginia Tech, winning the last 12 matchups and 23 of the last 25. UofL prevailed 94-90 in last year's meeting in the KFC Yum! Center (2-18-17) as the Cardinals matched a season-best with 12 three-point goals. Donovan Mitchell led UofL with 26 points, burying 5-of-7 three-pointers, and Quentin Snider added 19 points and four assists. Virginia Tech's 17 made three-pointers in 26 attempts (.654) set a KFC Yum! Center record for an opponent and the Hokies' 90 points set a scoring record for an opponent in the KFC Yum! Center.

CARDINAL NOTES

Louisville is second in the nation in blocked shots (7.7 bpg) and ranks 10th in field goal percentage defense (.382) and 54th in scoring defense (66.2). Center Anas Mahmoud is fourth in the nation in blocked shots (3.69) and Ray Spalding is 12th in offensive rebounds (3.69).
Quentin Snider needs 21 points to become the Cardinals' 68th career 1,000-point scorer. He has averaged a team-high 15.0 points, made 17-of-36 three-pointers (.472) and handed out 42 assists with 13 turnovers over the last 10 games. He is second in the ACC and 33nd in the nation in assists turnover ratio (2.87).
Louisville overcame a 45-32 halftime deficit at Florida State to win, marking the largest halftime deficit overcome in an road victory by the Cardinals since 2003. UofL also halted a 28-game home winning streak by FSU.
Louisville has a 38-8 record in its conference home games over the last six years (.826), including an 8-1 record last year.
Louisville is one of just four schools which have won 20 or more games in each of the last 15 seasons (also Kansas, Duke and Gonzaga).
Louisville has a 41-18 record during the month of January over the last eight years, including a 25-9 record in the last five years.
Louisville achieved a collective 3.083 grade-point average for the 2017 fall semester, with nine of 14 current student-athletes earning a 3.0 or better GPA (19th consecutive semester with at least a team 3.0 GPA). UofL is one of only two schools in the nation to have perfect men's basketball multi-year Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores each of the past four years. A league-high six Cardinals were named to the 2017 All-ACC Academic Team.

Men's Basketball Returns Home to Host Virginia Tech on Saturday Afternoon

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Players Mentioned

Deng Adel

Anas Mahmoud

Ryan McMahon

Jordan Nwora

Quentin Snider

University of Louisville Athletics