Louisville Earns No. 6 Seed for ACC Tournament

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - With the conclusion of the regular season following Saturday's slate of games across the Atlantic Coast Conference, the bracket for the league's men's basketball tournament is now officially set.

Sporting a conference record of 11-7 and 22-9 overall, Louisville has secured single bye for next week's ACC Tournament, earning the No. 6 seed. The Cardinals will open postseason play on Wednesday, Mar. 11, and face the winner of 11th-seeded SMU vs. 14th-seeded Syracuse. Tip-off time will be determined later this evening.

Louisville went 2-1 during the regular season against their two potential opponents for their ACC Tournament opener. They split their two meetings with the Mustangs, winning 88-74 at the KFC Yum! Center back on Jan. 31 but falling 95-85 back on Feb. 17 in the rematch in Dallas, and more recently, took down the Orange 77-62 back on Mar. 3 at the KFC Yum! Center in their home finale.

Year two under head coach Pat Kelsey has certainly had some ups and down, and has been a bit of a disappointment when compared to preseason expectations. Louisville entered the season as a squad who could potentially contend for a Final Four, and were ranked as high as the No. 6 team in the nation.

While the Cardinals head into the postseason out of the AP Top 25, after splitting their last six games. UofL does have some positive momentum going for them. In their last time out against Miami, they were finally able to beat a ranked team on the road, winning 92-89. It marked their first win against a Quad 1A team all season after previously being 0-8 in such games.

This is Louisville's fourth time since joining the ACC for the 2014-15 season that they have secured a single bye, also doing so in 2018, 2019 and 2021. In each of the three previous instances, the Cardinals won their first matchup, only to fall the very next day in the quarterfinals.

Overall, Louisville is just 6-9 in the ACC Tournament, and have only advanced past the quarterfinal round just once. This came last season, when they got all the way to the ACC Championship Game before falling 73-62 to Duke.

The ACC Tournament is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, Mar. 10. The first round will be televised on the ACC Network, with the remainder of the tournament being held on ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU. The ACC Championship will take place on Saturday, Mar. 14 at 8:30 p.m. EST on ESPN.

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