Cardinals to Honor 40th Anniversary of 1983 Final Four as Wake Forest Visits

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Louisville men's basketball stays at home this weekend to host Wake Forest at 3 p.m. ET Saturday at the KFC Yum! Center. The game will air on the ACC Network. The Cardinals will also recognize the 40^th anniversary of the 1983 Final Four team.

UofL suffered another narrow loss Tuesday – its fourth one-point defeat of the season – with a 70-69 setback against Syracuse. Wake Forest is coming off an 88-79 loss at North Carolina on Wednesday.

Louisville leads the all-time series against Wake Forest 9-3 and is a perfect 4-0 at home against the Demon Deacons, although Wake won the last meeting 99-77 last season to snap a five-game Cardinal winning streak in the series.

GAME 16

Wake Forest (10-5, 2-2 ACC) at Louisville (2-13, 0-4 ACC)
January 7, 2023 | 3 p.m. ET
KFC Yum! Center | Louisville, Ky.

MEDIA INFO

Listen: Cardinal Sports Network (WLCL 93.9 FM & WGTK 970 AM flagship); Streaming (Paul Rogers, pxp | Bob Valvano, analysis)

Watch: ACC Network (Mike Monaco, pxp | Chris Spatola, analyst)

Live Stats: Sidearm Stats

PROMOTIONS/TICKETS

Single-Game Tickets

Alumni Day/1983 Final Four Team Recognition

TOP STORYLINES

• Louisville's 70-69 loss to Syracuse on Tuesday was its fourth one-point loss of the season, which is the most in a season in UofL history and tied for the most ever by an ACC program – joining 2014-15 Georgia Tech, 2004-05 Florida State and 1970-71 Wake Forest. It was the first one-point loss for the Cardinals since losing their first three games by a single point.

• The Cardinals will honor the 40th anniversary of their 1983 Final Four team at halftime of Saturday's game. Guided by Hall of Fame coach Denny Crum, and captained by Scooter and Rodney McCray, the Cardinals (32-4 record) won the Metro Conference title and took down No. 12 Kentucky in overtime in the NCAA Mideast Regional to reach the Final Four, before falling to No. 1 Houston. Louisville was led in scoring that year by Milt Wagner, who's currently the program's Director of Player Personnel and Alumni Relations. Lancaster Gordon, Rodney McCray and Charles Jones also joined Wagner in double figures scoring for that club.

Louisville Men's Basketball 1982-83 Team Photo

• Over the last six games, senior guard El Ellis has averaged 20.8 points, 6.0 assists, 2.8 rebounds and 2.0 steals while making 14 of 35 3-pointers (40%) and 39 of 47 free throws (83%). As of Thursday, Ellis was one of 12 players in the nation with at least 265 points and 65 assists this season. Wake Forest's Tyree Appleby is also among that list.

• After averaging 1.7 points and 3.6 rebounds across the first nine games, senior forward Sydney Curry is averaging 9.8 points and 7.7 rebounds over the last six games while shooting 64% overall. His career-high 19 rebounds against Florida A&M were the most by a Cardinal since Luke Whitehead grabbed 19 boards against Marquette on Jan. 31, 2004.

• Sophomore forward Brandon Huntley-Hatfield has made 13 of 18 total shots from the field (72.2%) in the last three games. He went 9 of 23 from the field (39.1%) combined in the previous four games.

• Junior forward JJ Traynor has made more 3-pointers in 15 games this season (10 of 27, .370) than he did in his first two full seasons combined (7 of 16).

• Freshman forward Kamari Lands has averaged 8.5 points per game off the bench across Louisville's last six games, while making 18 of 20 free throws. Lands has made 33 of 36 free throws overall this season (91.7%), making him one of 19 players in the country – and the only freshman – shooting 91% or better from the stripe on at least 35 attempts.

• Over the last three outings, redshirt freshman guard/forward Mike James is averaging 12.3 points per game (second-most on the team) while shooting 56% from the field (15 of 27) and 50% from the 3-point line (5 of 10).

• Per Ken Pomeroy, Louisville is 341st in the country in Division I experience with an average of 0.88 years.

• The Cardinals are 13 games into a 16-game stretch that will see them face 12 teams in the top 100 of the KenPom rankings and 14 teams in the top 165. That stretch began in Maui with Arkansas and concludes Jan. 18 with Pittsburgh. As of Thursday, the overall record of Louisville's opponents during that stretch was 152-80.

HISTORY VS. WAKE FOREST (UofL leads 9-3)

Last Meeting: Wake Forest 99, Louisville 77
Feb. 26, 2022 | Winston Salem, N.C.

Jake LaRavia scored 23 points, Dallas Walton scored 22 and all five Wake Forest starters reached double figures in a 99-77 victory over Louisville.

Wake Forest rolled through the second half, turning an eight-point halftime lead into a 95-64 advantage after LaRavia scored with 3:40 remaining. At that point, Wake Forest had made 72% of its shots in the second half. Soon after that the Demon Deacons emptied the bench.

Daivien Williamson scored 15 points, Isaiah Mucius 12 and Alondes Williams 11 for Wake Forest. LaRavia had seven rebounds, five assists and made 13 of 14 free throws. Walton was 8 of 9 from the field, including 4 for 4 from 3-point distance.

Sydney Curry led Louisville with 28 points. He made 13 of 18 shots and had seven rebounds off the bench. Noah Locke added 14 points.

Wake Forest broke out to a 22-5 lead in the first eight minutes of the first half. The Demon Deacons made 4 of 5 3-pointers in that run and 9 of 12 overall while Louisville made just 2 of 10 shots.

Cardinals to Honor 40th Anniversary of 1983 Final Four as Wake Forest Visits

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Players Mentioned

Sydney Curry

El Ellis

Brandon Huntley-Hatfield

Mike James

Kamari Lands

Noah Locke

JJ Traynor

University of Louisville Athletics