Cardinals Host No. 14 North Carolina on Saturday Evening

GAME 27
Date: Feb. 17, 2018
Time: 8:16 p.m.
Site: KFC Yum! Center/Crum Court, Louisville, Ky. (22,000) (129-17 in 8th year)
Television: ESPN - Mark Neely, play-by-play; Robbie Hummel, analyst.
Radio: WHAS (840 AM) Paul Rogers, play-by-play; Bob Valvano, analyst (Sirius channel 84, XM 84, Internet 84)
Series History: UofL trails 5-12 (4-0 in Louisville, 0-3 in Chapel Hill, 1-9 neutral)
Last Meeting: North Carolina 74, UofL 63 (Feb. 22, 2017 at Chapel Hill, N.C.)
UofL National Ranking: unranked (receiving votes in the AP and USA Today polls)
Officials: Ted Valentine, Mike Eades, Jeffrey Anderson
Next UofL Game: Feb. 21 at Duke, Durham, N.C., 9 p.m. ET (ESPN)

After a six-day break, Louisville will return home to the KFC Yum! Center as the Cardinals face the North Carolina Tar Heels on Saturday. The game has been promoted as a "White Out," with fans encouraged to wear white attire to the game. Louisville (18-8, 8-5 ACC) won its second straight in prevailing 94-60 at Pittsburgh on Satuday. Anas Mahmoud, VJ King and Malik Williams each scored 14 points to lead the Cardinals, who shot a blazing 63 percent from the field, made 10-of-19 three-pointers (.526), and limited the Panthers to 34.5 percent accuracy from the field.

Deng Adel leads the Cardinals in scoring with 15.5 points per game. Quentin Snider ranks second on the team, averaging 12.1 points per game while dishing out a team best 106 assists. Spalding leads the team on the boards with 8.8 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 44.2 percent on the year.

North Carolina (20-7, 9-5 ACC), ranked 14th by AP and 16th in the USA Today poll, has won its last four games, including beating Notre Dame 83-66 at home on Feb. 12. Joel Berry II scored 21 points to lead the Tar Heels, the nation's leader in rebound margin (+11.7).

North Carolina leads the nation in rebounding margin (+11.7), is ninth in assists (17.9) and 24th in scoring offense (83.3). UNC is No. 8 in the Sagarin Ratings, No. 10 by Ken Pomeroy and No. 8 in the RPI through Feb. 14.

Louisville trails 5-12 in its series against North Carolina, splitting the last four matchups. Four of the meetings have come in the NCAA Tournament, including twice in regional finals. The Tar Heels won 74-63 in last year's meeting in Chapel Hill, N.C., as Donovan Mitchell led the Cardinals with 21 points (2-22-17).

CARDINAL NOTES

Louisville is third in the nation in blocked shots (6.5 bpg) and ranks 12th in field goal percentage defense (.397) and 43rd in steals per game (7.5). Center Anas Mahmoud is eighth in the nation in blocked shots (3.08) and Ray Spalding is 30th in offensive rebounds (3.23).
Louisville has held eight of its 13 ACC opponents to 40 percent or below shooting from the field. UofL limited its last two foes to 35.4 percent shooting after its previous three opponents had shot a collective 48.5 percent from the field. The Cards have collected nine or more steals in seven league games (season high 15 vs. Georgia Tech).
Freshman Jordan Nwora was selected ACC Rookie of the Week (12.0 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 59.1 FG%, 7-of-11 three-pointers in 3 games; team-high 16 points and 4 steals vs. Georgia Tech).
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 blocked a shot in 259 consecutive games dating back to 2011. Anas Mahmoud has blocked a shot in 77 career games and is fourth in career blocked shots (193).
Louisville has a 59-20 record during the month of February over the last 10 years (.747), winning 24 of its last 35 in that month (5-2 last year).
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.

Cardinals Host No. 14 North Carolina on Saturday Evening

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Deng Adel

Anas Mahmoud

Jordan Nwora

Quentin Snider

Ray Spalding

Malik Williams

University of Louisville Athletics