Men's Basketball Hosts Georgia Tech on Thursday Night

GAME 25
Date: Feb. 8, 2018
Time: 7:01 p.m.
Site: KFC Yum! Center/Crum Court, Louisville, Ky. (22,000) (128-17 in 8th year)
Television: ESPN - Doug Sherman, play-by-play; Cory Alexander, analyst.
Radio: WHAS (840 AM) Paul Rogers, play-by-play; Bob Valvano, analyst (Sirius channel 83, XM 201, Internet 83)
Series History: UofL leads 19-13 (10-4 in Louisville, 5-4 in Atlanta, 4-5 neutral)
Last Meeting: UofL 65, Georgia Tech 50 (Jan. 7, 2017 at Atlanta, Ga.)
UofL National Ranking: unranked (receiving votes in the USA Today poll)
Officials: Roger Ayers, Les Jones, Ted Valentine
Next UofL Game: Feb. 11 at Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pa., 1 p.m. ET (ACC Network/ WAVE-TV in Louisville)

Louisville will play its third straight at home in the KFC Yum! Center as the Cardinals face the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets on Thursday. Louisville (16-8, 6-5 ACC) dropped its third straight and fourth in the last five games in falling 78-73 to Syracuse on Monday. After suffering a sprained ankle late in his previous game against Florida State, Ray Spalding led the Cardinals with 18 points and nine rebounds (7-of-8 FG, 4-of-6 FT). It was the first time the Cardinals have lost three straight games since its 2013 NCAA Championship season.

Deng Adel leads the Cardinals in scoring with 15.5 points per game. Quentin Snider ranks second on the team, averaging 12.5 points per game while dishing out a team best 95 assists. Spalding leads the team on the boards with 9.2 rebounds per game and ranks third on the team in scoring with 11.6 points per game. Ryan McMahon leads the team from behind the arc, shooting 40.6 percent on the year.

Georgia Tech (11-12, 4-6 ACC) has lost five of its last six games, including an 80-72 loss in overtime at Boston College on Feb. 4. Ben Lammers led six Georgia Tech players in double figures with 14 points and 12 rebounds.

Georgia Tech is 22nd nationally in scoring defense (64.5 ppg) and 20th in blocked shots (6.0). Tech is No. 99 in the Sagarin Ratings, No. 108 by Ken Pomeroy and No. 139 in the RPI through Feb. 5. Tech started the ACC 3-1 for the first time since 2003-04, including home victories over then No. 15 Miami and No. 25 Notre Dame. Senior guard Tadric Jackson reached 1,000 career points two games ago against Syracuse.

Louisville has a 19-13 series advantage over Georgia Tech and the Cardinals have won the last six matchups. In last year's meeting, Louisville prevailed 65-50 in Atlanta as Donovan Mitchell scored 20 points to lead the Cardinals, who blocked 12 shots in the game (1-7-17). Louisville and Georgia Tech were founding members of the Metro Conference in 1975, but the Yellow Jackets left for the ACC in 1978.

CARDINAL NOTES

Louisville is second in the nation in blocked shots (6.7 bpg) and ranks 21st in field goal percentage defense (.400) and 44th in 3-point defense (.319). Center Anas Mahmoud is sixth in the nation in blocked shots (3.17) and Ray Spalding is 17th in offensive rebounds (3.42).
Louisville has held six of its 11 ACC opponents to 40 percent or below shooting from the field, but UofL's last three opponents have shot a collective 48.5 percent from the field. The Cardinals have collected nine or more steals in six conference games.
Louisville has a 41-10 record in its conference home games over the last six years (.804), including an 8-1 record last year. UofL has the third-most conference home wins in its four years in the ACC with 26.
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 257 consecutive games dating back to 2011. Anas Mahmoud has blocked a shot in 75 career games and is fourth in career blocked shots (189).
Louisville has a 57-20 record during the month of February over the last 10 years (.740), winning 23 of its last 33 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.

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Players Mentioned

Deng Adel

Anas Mahmoud

Ryan McMahon

Quentin Snider

Ray Spalding

University of Louisville Athletics