Men's Basketball Hosts Northern Kentucky in the First Round of the NIT

Tuesday, March 13

LOUISVILLE, KY

7 p.m.

University of Louisville

NORTHERN KENTUCKY

Tickets

Photo by: Jeff Reinking | Louisville Athletics

Men's Basketball Hosts Northern Kentucky in the First Round of the NIT

March 12, 2018 | Men's Basketball

Louisville Game Notes Northern Kentucky Game Notes Live Stats

Cardinals begin postseason play on Tuesday night against the Norse

By: Kim Pemberton

GAME 34 – NIT First Round
Date: March 13, 2018
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Date: Tuesday, March 14, 7 p.m. ET
Site: KFC Yum! Center/Crum Court, Louisville, Ky. (22,000) (129-20 in 8th year)
Television: ESPN - Anish Shroff play-byplay; Dino Gaudio, analyst.
Radio: WHAS (840 AM) Paul Rogers, play-by-play; Bob Valvano, analyst
Only Previous Meetings: (both exhibitions) - UofL 84, Northern Kentucky 69
(Nov. 8, 2008 at Highland Heights, Ky.) - UofL 83, Northern Kentucky 66
(Oct. 31, 2010 at KFC Yum! Center)

Louisville will play its first game of the 2018 NIT as they host Northern Kentucky (22-9) on Tuesday, March 13 at 7 p.m. in the KFC Yum! Center.

Deng Adel leads the Cardinals in scoring with 15.4 points per game. Spalding is the second leading scorer for the Cardinals with 12.3 points per game. Quentin Snider ranks second on the team in scoring, averaging 12.2 points per game. Snider also leads the team in assists, dishing out a team best 132 assists. Spalding leads the team on the boards with 8.6 rebounds per game. Freshman Jordan Nwora leads the team from behind the arc, shooting 45.5 percent on the year.

After claiming the first regular-season title of any program at Northern Kentucky, the men's basketball team is making its first-ever appearance in the NIT as a seven seed. In just its second season of NCAA Division I eligibility, Northern Kentucky won the Horizon League regular season title. NKU finished the conference schedule with a 15-3 mark, its winningest conference season at the DI level to date. In fact, NKU only had four seasons at the DII level with more league wins when it posted 16 in 1994-95, 1996-97, 1999-2000 and 2002-03.

All-Horizon league first team member F Drew McDonald has 17 double-doubles, 14th-most in the nation. McDonald leads NKU in scoring (16.9 ppg) and rebounding (9.5 rpg). Lavone Holland II earned All-Horizon League second team honors, averaging 13.8 points per game, 4.1 rebounds and 4.5 assists.

This will be the first official meeting between the two teams, but the teams have played two exhibitions previously. The Cardinals played an exhibition doubleheader with the women's team to open the 9,400-seat Bank of Kentucky Center in 2008 as Samardo Samuels scored 29 points to lead UofL to an 84-69 exhibition victory (11-8-08). Louisville played its first game of the 2010-11 season against outside competition -- and its first in the new KFC Yum! Center -- as the Cardinals beat Northern Kentucky 83-66 in an exhibition game (10-31-10).

CARDINAL NOTES

Louisville is participating in postseason competition for the 48th time in the last 53 years.
This is Louisville's 15th appearance in the NIT. The Cardinals have a 14-14 record in the postseason event and have reached the national semifinals on three occasions, winning the 1956 NIT Championship.
Louisville is fourth in the nation in blocked shots (6.2 bpg) and ranks 39th in field goal percentage defense (.411). Anas Mahmoud is seventh in the nation in blocked shots (3.0) and Ray Spalding is 26th in offensive rebounds (3.21).
Louisville has made 41.9 percent of their threes over the last 10 games (93-of-222) and is third in the ACC in three-point percentage for conference games only (.382). UofL is 15-3 when it makes eight or more three-pointers in a game. The Cardinals made a combined 19-of-37 threes in its two games in the ACC Tournament (.514).
Louisville held eight of its 18 ACC opponents to 40 percent or below shooting from the field. The Cardinals collected nine or more steals in seven league games and are second in the ACC in steals in conference games (7.0 per game).
David Padgett joins Denny Crum (26 wins in 1971-72) and John Dromo (21 in 1967-68) as the only UofL coaches to have won 20 games in their first season with the Cardinals.
Louisville is one of just four schools which have won 20 or more games in each of the last 16 seasons (also Kansas, Duke and Gonzaga), reaching its 20th victory in the ACC Tournament.
Louisville is 19-3 when shooting better from the field than its opponent, 18-3 when committing fewer turnovers than its opponent, and 15-2 when making eight or more three-pointers in a game.
Four Cardinals were named to the 2018 All-ACC Academic Team (ACC-best 24 selections over 4 years). UofL 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.