Men's Basketball to Face Florida State on Wednesday Afternoon in the ACC Tournament

Wednesday, March 7

Brooklyn, NY

12 p.m.

University of Louisville

Florida State

Photo by: Jeff Reinking | Louisville Athletics

Men's Basketball to Face Florida State on Wednesday Afternoon in the ACC Tournament

March 06, 2018 | Men's Basketball

Louisville Game Notes Florida State Game Notes Tickets

Cardinals start postseason play on Wednesday at noon against the Seminoles.

By: Kim Pemberton

GAME 32 – ACC Tournament
Date: Wednesday, March 7, Noon ET
Site: Barclays Center (17,732), Brooklyn, N.Y.
Television: ESPN - Sean McDonough, play-by-play; Dan Dakich, analyst; Maria Taylor, reporter. Also - ACC Network (WAVE-TV in Louisville) - Tim Brando, play-by-play; Mike Gminski, analyst.
Radio: WHAS (840 AM) Paul Rogers, play-by-play; Jody Demling, analyst (Sirius 81, XM 81, Internet 81)
Series History: UofL leads 33-11 (17-3 in Louisville, 13-7 in Tallahassee, 3-1 neutral)
This Year's Meeting: Florida State 80, UofL 76 (Feb. 3, 2018 at KFC Yum! Center); UofL 73, FSU 69 (Jan. 10 in Tallahassee, Fla.)
UofL National Ranking: unranked

Louisville will be participating in its third Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament this week. The Cardinals fell 70-60 to North Carolina in the quarterfinals of the 2015 ACC Tournament in Greensboro; and lost 81-77 to Duke in the 2017 quarterfinals in Brooklyn in its only two previous appearances. Louisville did not participate in the 2016 event. It is the seventh league in which the Cardinals have appeared in a post-season tournament. Louisville has won three of its last six league tournament titles in which it has participated and four over the last eight years it has played (since 2009). Louisville has won 10 of its last 12 conference tournament games and has a 15-4 record with three championships over its last eight conference tournaments.

Deng Adel leads the Cardinals in scoring with 15.5 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 123 assists. Spalding is the third leading scorer for the Cardinals with 12.0 points per game. He leads the team on the boards with 8.8 rebounds per game. Freshman Jordan Nwora leads the team from behind the arc, shooting 44.2 percent on the year.

Florida State (20-10, 9-9 ACC), ranked in the nation's Top 25 for six weeks this season, has won three of its last five, including an 85-76 victory at Boston College on March 3 in its last game as the Seminoles shot 50 percent from the field. Trent Forrest led FSU with 21 points, 10 rebounds and five assists. Florida State has won 20 games for the third consecutive season.

The Seminoles are 27th nationally in blocked shots (5.0) and 29^th in scoring offense (82.0). FSU is No. 31 in the Sagarin Ratings, No. 35 by Ken Pomeroy and No. 44 in the RPI through March 3.

Louisville has a 33-11 series advantage over Florida State winning three of the last five matchups. The Cardinals prevailed 73-69 at No. 23 Florida State earlier this season (1-10-18), breaking a 28-game Seminoles home winning streak as UofL fought back from a 17-point deficit to win. The win over No. 23 Florida State was UofL's first road victory over a Top 25 opponent since 2014. FSU won 80-76 in the KFC Yum! Center last month (2-3-18) as Deng Adel led the Cardinals with 19 points.

The teams were fellow members of the Metro Conference from 1976-91. The teams met in the Metro Tournament five times, with Louisville holding a 4-1 advantage in those games.

CARDINAL NOTES

Louisville is third in the nation in blocked shots (6.2 bpg) and ranks 20th in field goal percentage defense (.407). Anas Mahmoud is eighth in the nation in blocked shots (3.0) and Ray Spalding is 27th in offensive rebounds (3.19).
Louisville has won 10 of its last 12 conference tournament games and has a 15-4 record with three championships over its last eight conference tournaments.
Louisville has made 41.8 percent of their threes over the last nine games (84-of-201) and is third in the ACC in three-point percentage for conference games only (.382). UofL is 14-2 when it makes eight or more three-pointers in a game (5-of-18 threes vs. NC State in its last game).
Louisville held eight of its 18 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 (7.0 per game).
Louisville has won at least nine league games for 11 straight seasons.
Louisville's No. 9 seed in the 2018 ACC Tournament is the lowest in a conference tournament for the Cardinals since it entered the 2006 Big East Tournament with a No. 11 seed in their first year in that league.
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.