Louisville is First Alternate for NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- The University of Louisville was listed as a first alternate for the 2021 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship when the bracket was revealed on Sunday night. The Cardinals would replace a team who would not be able to participate in the tournament due to COVID-19 issues.

After missing seven conference games due to COVID-19 issues of its own or its opponent, Louisville (13-7 overall) posted an 8-5 record in its seventh season in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Cardinals had entered the final game of the regular season with an opportunity to rise as high as third in the conference standings. Louisville has won at least eight league games for 15 straight seasons. The Cardinals have a collective 33-18 record in ACC games over the last three season, comparing similarly with UofL's 36-18 mark in its first three seasons in the league.

Should Louisville be included as a replacement for one of the teams in the field before the deadline on Tuesday night, the Cardinals would be the least experienced team among the 68-team NCAA Tournament field. The Cardinals rank 331st in the nation in experince in Kenpom analytics. Louisville replaced its entire starting lineup from a year ago and lost its most experienced returnee in forward/center Malik Williams for all but three games. The Cardinals returned about a quarter of its scoring and rebounding production from UofL's successful 2019-20 squad that was positioned eighth in the nation in the NCAA's final NET rankings. Three returnees made a combined eight starts last season.

Until senior Malik Williams joined the team for three late season games, Louisville had been successful with only two upperclassman among its 12 scholarship players. Graduate transfers Carlik Jones and Charles Minlend -- who has played 55 total minutes in seven recent games after recovering from a knee injury -- join nine Cardinals who are freshmen or sophomores in that group. The only Power 5 schools among the 24 in the nation with less experience than Louisville per Kenpom analytics are Kentucky, Duke, Kansas State and Auburn. Among Louisville's active players, only Jones and Minlend had experienced playing in a postseason game before the Cardinals' second round ACC Tournament game against Duke.

Louisville is among the top defensive teams in the ACC, ranking first in the ACC in three-point field goal defense (.305), fourth in scoring defense (66.5 ppg) and sixth in field goal percentage defense (.422).

All-ACC guard Carlik Jones is the only player in the ACC to rank among the top six in scoring (16.8 ppg, 6th in the ACC), assists (4.5 apg, 4th), assists/turnovers ratio (2.18, 4th and free throw percentage (.815, 3rd). Jones has 101 career double-figure scoring efforts, including 41 of his last 42 games (18 of his 19 at Louisville). He is the first person in UofL history to reach double figures in his first 17 games at Louisville.

Louisville has posted its 73rd winning season over the last 76 seasons. UofL has a 61-41 overall NCAA Tournament record, reaching the Final Four eight times. Louisville has 39 NCAA Tournament appearances, reaching the Sweet 16 on 17 occasions and the Elite Eight 11 times. Louisville is seventh in NCAA Tournament appearances (39), ninth in tournament victories (61) and sixth in tournament games (102). UofL Coach Chris Mack has an 11-9 record in his nine NCAA Tournament appearances, including reaching the Sweet 16 on four occasions and the Elite Eight in 2017.

Louisville is one of only five schools to be ranked in the AP Top 25 poll at least once during each of the past 18 seasons (since 2002-03, excluding preseason polls).

Three UofL men's basketball student-athletes -- Dre Davis, David Johnson and Samuell Williamson -- were honored on the 2021 All-ACC Academic Men's Basketball Team for their academic achievement as well as their on-court performance. Williamson earned the recognition for the second year. With these three selections, Louisville has placed an ACC-best 39 selections on the team in the last seven years, including five on last year's team. The men's basketball team has attained a collective 3.0 GPA for 23 of the last 25 semesters, including a 3.100 cumulative team mark for the Fall 2020 semester. Thirteen of 17 Cardinals earned a 3.0 GPA or better in the UofL Fall 2020 semester (10 of 16 in the Spring 2020 semester).

Louisville has received an NCAA Public Recognition Award seven of the last eight years for ranking among the top 10 percent in men's basketball in the Academic Progress Rate (APR), which measures academic eligibility, retention and graduation for student-athletes. Louisville and Stanford are the only two schools from Power Five conferences that have earned the APR recognition in at least seven of the last eight years.

University of Louisville Athletics

Louisville is First Alternate for NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament

Players Mentioned

Dre Davis

David Johnson

Carlik Jones

Charles Minlend

Malik Williams

Samuell Williamson

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