Men's Basketball Will Wrap Up Regular Season Slate at NC State on Saturday

GAME 31
Date: March 3, 2018
Time: 6:05 p.m.
Site: PNC Arena (19,700), Raleigh, N.C.
Television: ESPN - Mike Couzens, play-by-play; Cory Alexander, analyst.
Radio: WHAS (840 AM) Paul Rogers, play-by-play; Jody Demling, analyst (Sirius channel 84, XM 84, Internet 84)
Series History: UofL leads 11-9 (6-2 in Louisville, 4-4 in Raleigh, 1-3 neutral)
Last Meeting: UofL 85, NC State 60 (Jan. 24, 2017 at KFC Yum! Center)
UofL National Ranking: unranked
Officials: Bert Smith, Lamar Simpson, A.J. Desai
Next UofL Game: March 6-10, ACC Tournament, Brooklyn, N.Y.

Louisville will play its final regular season game as the Cardinals travel to Raleigh, N.C. to face the NC State Wolfpack on Saturday. Louisville (19-11, 9-8 ACC) suffered a 67-66 gut-wrenching loss to top-ranked Virginia on Senior Day at the KFC Yum! Center on Thursday, after leading by 13 with 11 minutes remaining and by four with 0.9 seconds left. Deng Adel led the Cardinals with 18 points and a team-high four assists. Louisville is eighth in the ACC standings and could be seeded between 6-9 for the ACC Tournament, dependant upon the results of Saturday's final seven ACC games.

Deng Adel leads the Cardinals in scoring with 15.4 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 117 assists. Spalding is the third leading scorer for the Cardinals with 12.0 points per game. He leads the team on the boards with 8.9 rebounds per game. Freshman Jordan Nwora leads the team from behind the arc, shooting 44.2 percent on the year.

Coached by former UofL assistant Kevin Keatts, NC State (20-10, 10-7 ACC) has won four of its last five and seven of its last 10 games, including beating then-No. 25 Florida State 92-72 on Feb. 25. The Wolfpack, tied for fifth in the ACC standings, fell 78-75 at Georgia Tech in their last game on Thursday as Allerik Freeman scored 19 points in the loss.

NC State's five wins over ranked opponents this season are its most since 2003-04. Keatts was an assistant at UofL for three seasons (2011-14) when the Cardinals posted a 96-21 (.821) record. NC State is No. 61 in the RPI, No. 47 in the Sagarin Ratings and No. 42 by Ken Pomeroy through March 1.

Louisville has an 11-9 series advantage over NC State, winning the last three matchups. UofL prevailed 85-60 in last season's meeting in Louisville (1-24-17) as Donovan Mitchell led the Cardinals with 28 points and eight rebounds.

CARDINAL NOTES

Louisville is third in the nation in blocked shots (6.2 bpg) and ranks 18th in field goal percentage
defense (.406). Anas Mahmoud is eighth in the nation in blocked shots (2.9) and Ray Spalding is 22nd in offensive rebounds (3.27).
Louisville has won six of its last nine final regular season games, including beating No. 19 Notre Dame in last year's final contest.
Louisville has made 43.2 percent of their threes over the last eight games (79-of-183) and leads the ACC in three-point percentage for conference games only (.387). UofL is 14-2 when it makes eight or more three-pointers in a game (6 vs. Virginia in its last game).
Louisville has held eight of its 17 ACC opponents to 40 percent or below shooting from the field. The Cardinals have collected nine or more steals in seven league games and are second in the ACC in steals in conference games (7.2 per game).
Louisville has a 32-20 record in its conference road games over the last six years (.615). UofL has the fourth-most conference road wins in its four years in the ACC with 18.
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), needing one victory to extend that streak.
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.

University of Louisville Athletics

Men's Basketball Will Wrap Up Regular Season Slate at NC State on Saturday

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Deng Adel

Anas Mahmoud

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Quentin Snider

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