Preview: Louisville Cardinals vs. Stanford Cardinal

Louisville Cardinals (25-6, 18-2 ACC) vs. Stanford Cardinal (19-12, 11-9)

- Tipoff: Thursday, Mar. 13 at 7:00 p.m. EST
- Location: Spectrum Center in Charlotte, N.C.
- How To Watch: ESPN2
- How To Listen: 93.9 FM
- Betting Favorite: Louisville -9.0
- All-Time Series: Louisville leads 3-0
- Last Meeting: Louisville won 68-48 on Mar. 8, 2025 (KFC Yum! Center - Louisville, Ky.)

Projected Starting Lineups

Louisville

G Chucky Hepburn (6-2, 190, Sr.)
G Reyne Smith (6-2, 190, Sr.)
G J'Vonne Hadley (6-6, 215, 5th)
G/F Terrence Edwards Jr. (6-6, 205, 5th)
C James Scott (6-11, 220, So.)

Stanford

G Jaylen Blakes (6-2, 200, Gr.)
G Oziyah Sellars (6-5 190, Sr.)
G Ryan Agarwal (6-6, 195, So.)
F Aidan Cammann (6-10, 220, R-Fr.)
F Maxime Raynaud (7-1, 245, Sr.)

Comparison

See how the Cardinals stack up against the Cardinal, and who the statistical models favor: Tale of The Tape, Predictions: Louisville vs. Stanford

Additional Coverage

Game Notes

Louisville

Senior guard Chucky Hepburn was named ACC Defensive Player of the Year alongside his head coach Pat Kelsey who was voted ACC Coach of the Year. Hepburn was tabbed as a First Team All-ACC selection while teammate Terrence Edwards Jr. earned a spot on the Third Team.
After Terrence Edwards Jr. scored a career high 35 points against Cal on March 5, Louisville became the only DI program this season to have four different players log at least one 30-point game. It’s also the first time in Louisville’s 111-year history that the team has four players with a 30-point game.
Louisville has improved from eight wins in 2023-24 to 25 wins in 2024-25, the largest turnaround in program history, improving by 17 wins - it also leads the nation in win differential.
For the first time in the 111 years of program history, Louisville has earned five road wins with a margin of victory of 20 points or more: at Virginia (20), at Syracuse (24), at SMU (25), at Boston College (26) and at NC State (25)
Starting point guard Chucky Hepburn was named to the Naismith Trophy Men’s Player of the Year Midseason Team.
Pat Kelsey’s Cardinals are one of the most improved teams in the country from the end of 2023-24 to now, accounting for the NET and number of wins. He was named to the Naismith Men’s College Coach of the Year Watch List on Feb. 21.
As of March 11, Reyne Smith is third in the country in 3’s per game (3.53) and ninth in total 3-pointers (106) - he’s 17 made 3’s away from breaking Louisville’s made 3-pointers in a single season record.
As of March 11, Chucky Hepburn is eighth in the country in total steals (68), ninth in steals per game (2.43), 24th in total assists (176) and 25th in assists per game (5.9).
As of March 11, sophomore forward James Scott is third in the country in dunks with 71 makes on the year, according to Bart Torvik. He leads the ACC in that category and is third on Louisville’s dunks in a single season list.
Three of Louisville’s six losses have all come to teams now ranked in the AP Top 25: No. 2 Duke (27-3), No. 4 Tennessee (24-6) and No. 19 Kentucky (20-10). As of March 4, those teams, plus RV Ole Miss (21-9), are a combined 92-28.
At SMU on Jan. 21, Chucky Hepburn broke the UofL single game assists record with 16. Reyne Smith broke the program’s single game made 3’s record with 10. Louisville became the only DI team this century to have a player with 10+ 3’s and 15+ assists in the same game. The Last NBA team to do it was the Warriors with Klay Thompson (10 3PM) and Steph Curry (15 AST) on Nov. 20, 2022.
This is the first season in Louisville’s 11 years in the ACC that three different players have earned ACC Player of the Week. Chucky Hepburn had the title on Dec. 2 and March 3, Reyne Smith got the accolade on Dec. 23 and Terrence Edwards Jr. earned it on Feb. 10.
Against Florida State on Feb. 22, Chucky Hepburn knocked down 17 shots at the charity stripe, marking a new single game record for the Cards. Hepburn had tied the previous record of 16 earlier in the year against North Carolina on New Year’s Day.
Against Florida State on Dec. 21, Chucky Hepburn and Terrence Edwards Jr. both logged eight assists apiece; it was the first Louisville game to have two Cardinals log at least eight assists each in the same game since Peyton Siva and Gorgui Deng both had eight against Syracuse in the 2013 Big East Tournament championship game.
The Cardinals are one of the more experienced teams in the country this season. Between the 17-man roster, the average amount of years in college basketball is 3.0 years with just two underclassmen on the roster. The Cards have 12 players designated as seniors this season, tied with Western Kentucky for the most on any team in men’s DI college basketball. Louisville is one of four programs with seven or more fifth-year seniors or older.
Louisville has just two underclassmen in freshman Khani Rooths andsophomore James Scott. Louisville is one of just 11 schools in DI that has two or fewer underclassmen on their roster, and the only Power Four school in that list.
Louisville has 11 players who were on teams that played in the 2024 NCAA Tournament. The roster in total has made 14 NCAA Division I Tournament appearances at their previous schools, playing in 20 NCAA Tournament games across their careers

Stanford

The Cardinal went 19-12 in the regular season (11-9 ACC), including ACC wins over North Carolina, SMU, California (2x), Virginia Tech, Virginia, Florida State, Syracuse, NC State, Boston College and Miami, including two quadrant one NET wins. The Cardinal went 16-2 at home this season and 9-1 in ACC play.
Stanford’s roster holds an exciting mix of returning players, transfers and freshmen, led by the premier center in the country, Maxime Raynaud. Selected to the All-ACC first team, Raynaud is 16th nationally in scoring at 20.1 points per game and fifth in rebounding with 10.9 per night. He is second in the ACC in scoring and first in rebounding, and his 23 double-doubles this season pace the nation. No other major conference player has more than 19, and he is the only player in the country averaging at least 20 and 10.
Three players are averaging double figures, paced by Raynaud but also including Oziyah Sellers (13.3) and Jaylen Blakes (12.9). Both players are posting career-best numbers by a comfortable margin.
Blakes has showcased his clutch gene this season with game winning baskets in the closing seconds against both Santa Clara and North Carolina. Blakes made national headlines on Jan. 18 with his last-second winner against the Tar Heels, while his sister, Mikayla, a freshman at Vanderbilt, scored a game-winner of her own less than 24 hours later against Tennessee.
Kyle Smith joined the Cardinal from Washington State as the reigning Pac-12 Coach of the Year, where he led the Cougars to 25 wins and the second round of the NCAA Tournament in 2023-24.
Maxime Raynaud was one of five players selected to the All-ACC first team, as announced by the league office on March 10. Raynaud is the only player in the country averaging at least 20 points and 10 rebounds per game, and just the third ACC player to accomplish the feat since 2000. He is the first major conference player to average 20 and 10 with 50 or more 3-pointers since Kevin Durant (Texas, 2006-07) and Carmelo Anthony (Syracuse, 2002-03).
Among all power conference players, Blakes ranks fourth in scoring growth from 2023-24 to 2024-25, improving by 11.1 points per game. Only Wisconsin's John Tonje (16.3 ppg improvement) and Purdue's Trey Kaufman-Renn (13.3) and Northwestern's Nick Martinelli (11.4) have more. Blakes also ranked fourth in ACC play at 89.6 percent from the line in conference play.
Oziyah Sellers has been an explosive and efficient scorer this season, averaging a career-high 13.3 points on 45.2 percent shooting, including a 39.0 percent mark beyond the arc and an 89.3 percent total at the free throw line. Sellers slots in 27th in the ACC in scoring and he ranked fourth in conference games only in the ACC at 41.7 percent from beyond the arc. Sellers is on pace for a top-five single-season mark at Stanford in free throw percentage (min 80 FTA).
Stanford is on track to break two single-season program records as a team in free throw percentage and turnovers per game. Stanford is currently shooting 78.5 percent from the stripe as a team, which would best the current program record of 76.3 percent, set by the 2005-06 team, and be just the fourth Cardinal program to shoot better than 75 percent as a unit. Stanford is also giving up only 10.7 turnovers per night, its lowest mark on record. The previous record is 10.8 per game, accomplished by the 2014-15 team. Stanford ranks 15th nationally in free throw percentage (78.5%) and leads the ACC in league play at 83.6 percent. The team is also forcing offenses to score one-on-one, ranking ninth nationally in opponent assists per field goal (41.1%, KenPom).
Stanford enters its second round ACC matchup at No. 83 in the NET rankings (March 10). The matchup, with either opponent, will be in quadrant three. 15 of Stanford’s 31 regular season games are quadrant one or two contests, including nine in Q1. Stanford is one of seven in the ACC with multiple quadrant one wins, joining Duke, Clemson, Louisville, Wake Forest, Virginia and Georgia Tech.

(Photo of Noah Waterman: Jamie Rhodes - Imagn Images)

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