Cards Play First of Three Games in Six Days vs. Georgia Tech

Game Information
Site: KFC Yum! Center/Denny Crum Court, Louisville, Ky. (22,090) (169-26 in 11th year)
Television: ACC Network - Chris Cotter, play-by-play; Chris Spatola, analyst.
Radio: WHAS (840 AM) Paul Rogers, play-by-play; Bob Valvano, analyst (Sirius channel 137, XM 193, Internet 970)
Series History: UofL leads 22-14 (13-4 in Louisville, 5-5 in Atlanta, 4-5 neutral)
Last Meeting: Georgia Tech 64, UofL 58 (Feb. 12, 2020 at Atlanta, Ga.)
UofL National Ranking: No. 23 USA Today, No. 25 Associated Press (Jan. 25 poll)
Next UofL Game: Feb. 3 at Syracuse, Syracuse, N.Y., 7 p.m. ET (ACCN)

Louisville (10-4, 5-3 ACC) will open the month of February with its first of three games in six days as the Cardinals face the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets on Monday in the KFC Yum! Center. The game was originally scheduled for Jan. 9 before Georgia Tech paused.

Louisville fell 54-50 at Clemson on Jan. 27 as the Cardinals shot a season-low 31.6 percent from the field and 56.3 percent from the free throw line. Carlik Jones scored 11 points as the lone Cardinal in double figures and Jae'Lyn Withers matched his career high with 12 rebounds. Withers is seventh in the ACC in rebounding, averaging 7.6 per game.

Georgia Tech (8-5, 4-3 ACC) has won six of their last eight, including a 76-65 home victory over then-No. 16 Florida State on Jan. 30 when GT collected 13 steals and forced 20 turnovers. The Yellow Jackets' lone losses in that stretch were at ACC leader Virginia and at Duke.

Georgia Tech is 10th in the nation in steals (9.4 per game) and 20th in assist/turnover ratio (1.43). Jose Alvarado (18.3 ppg, third in ACC) and Moses Wright (17.1 ppg, sixth in the ACC) are among the top 10 scorers in the ACC. Georgia Tech is No. 105 in the RPI, No. 58 in the Sagarin Ratings, No. 61 in ESPN's College Basketball Power Index (BPI), No. 55 in the NET rankings and No. 51 by Ken Pomeroy through Jan. 30.

Louisville has a 22-14 series advantage over Georgia Tech, winning nine of the last 10 matchups. The teams split last year's two meetings, with the Cardinals winning 68-64 in Louisville (1-22-20) as Steven Enoch and Malik Williams led UofL with 13 points each; and the Yellow Jackets winning 64-58 in Atlanta (2-12-20) as Williams and David Johnson paced the Cardinals with 16 points apiece.

Louisville is among the top defensive teams in the ACC, ranking fourth in the ACC in scoring defense (64.6 ppg), third in three-point field goal defense (.310) and fourth in field goal percentage defense (.408). UofL has limited seven opponents to below 40 percent accuracy from the field.

Louisville has been successful with only two upperclassman among its 11 active scholarship players. Graduate transfers Carlik Jones and Charles Minlend -- who has played 10 minutes in two games this season after recovering from a knee injury -- joins nine Cardinals who are freshmen or sophomores in that group. Louisville ranks 337th in the nation in experience in KenPom analytics. The only Power 5 schools among the 20 in the nation with less experience are Kentucky, Duke and Auburn.

Notes

Louisville is scheduled to play nine games during the month of February for the first time in 21 years (since 1999-2000).
Carlik Jones needs 16 points for 1,800 in his career. He is 12th among active career scorers with 1,784 points (232 at UofL, 1,552 at Radford) .
Carlik Jones and David Johnson have combined to score 43.5 percent of the Cardinals' points in ACC games, while Jae'Lyn Withers and Samuell Williamson have collectively pulled down 40.7 percent of UofL's rebounding total. In ACC games, Jones is fourth in scoring (17.9 ppg) and Withers is third in rebounding (8.3 rpg).
Louisville and Georgia Tech were founding members of the Metro Conference in 1975, but the Yellow Jackets left for the ACC in 1978.
Wake Forest was 5-2 against Georgia Tech in the three seasons UofL Coach Chris Mack was an assistant at Wake Forest (2001-04).
Louisville has a 60-17 record in its conference home games over the last nine years (.773). UofL has the fourth-most conference home wins in its seven years in the ACC with a 44-14 ACC home record (9-1 last season).
Carlik Jones, named to The Sporting News Mid-Season All-America team on Jan. 28, ranks fourth in the ACC in scoring (17.8 ppg) and third in assists (4.6 apg). Jones has 96 career double-figure scoring efforts, including the last 36 consecutive games (all 13 at UofL). He has 30 career games with 20 or more points (four of the last seven). He needs 16 points for 1,800 in his career. Jones has collected 15 steals in the last six games.
Louisville is 8-1 when outrebounding its opponent. UofL's +6.0 rebounding advantage in conference games is second in the ACC and its +5.3 margin on the season is fourth in the ACC.
David Johnson is the only player in the ACC among the top 25 in both rebounding (5.9, 22nd in ACC) and assists (3.6, ninth in the ACC), adding 12.4 points per game. He has made 16-of-36 three-pointers in his last eight games (.444) and has made a team-leading 23-of-57 threes on the season (.404). He made just five threes as a freshman.
Jae'Lyn Withers has made 65.2 percent of his shots over his last six games (30-of-46). He has produced double-digit rebounding efforts in three of his last six games.

Cards Play First of Three Games in Six Days vs. Georgia Tech

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Players Mentioned

Steven Enoch

David Johnson

Carlik Jones

Charles Minlend

Malik Williams

Samuell Williamson

Jae'Lyn Withers

University of Louisville Athletics