Preview: Louisville Cardinals vs. Duke Blue Devils

No. 9 Duke Blue Devils (16-3, 6-2 ACC) at Louisville Cardinals (11-9, 5-5 ACC)

- Tipoff: Saturday, January 29th at 12:00 p.m. EST
- Location: KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Ky.
- How To Watch: ESPN
- How To Listen: WKRD 790 AM
- Betting Favorite: Duke -7.0
- All-Time Series: Duke leads 11-9
- Last Meeting: Duke won 70-56 on Mar. 10, 2021 (Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, N.C. - ACC Tournament)

Projected Starting Lineups

Louisville

F Malik Williams (6-11, 245, Sr.)
F Dre Davis (6-6, 210, So.)
C Sydney Curry (6-8, 270, Jr.)
G Noah Locke (6-3, 210, Sr.)
G Mason Faulkner (6-1, 185, Gr.)

Duke

F Wendell Moore, Jr. (6-5, 213, Jr.)
F Paolo Banchero (6-10, 250, Fr.)
F AJ Griffin (6-6, 222, Fr.)
C Mark Williams (7-1, 242, So.)
G Jeremy Roach (6-2, 172, So.)

Comparison

See how the Cardinals stack up against the Cavaliers, and who the statistical models favor: Tale of The Tape & Prediction: Louisville vs. Virginia

Game Notes

Louisville

UofL and Chris Mack mutually agreed to part ways on Jan. 26. Mike Pegues, a Louisville assistant coach since 2018, will serve as interim head coach for the remainder of the season.
Louisville will honor its 1972 and 1982 NCAA Final Four teams at halftime of Saturday’s game. Additional information on the two teams is on page 8 of these notes.
Jarrod West has scored a season-high matching 14 points in each of the last two games while connecting on 8-of-11 threepointers (.727). West is third in the nation in career steals among active players with 283 and ranks is third in the ACC in assists-turnovers ratio (2.42).
Louisville has averaged 28.4 points per game from its bench this season. Louisville’s bench contributed 30 points at Virginia, UofL’s 10th game this season with 30 or more bench points. The Cardinals have had 23 double-figure scoring efforts off the bench this season, including 14 points from Jarrod West and 11 from Matt Cross at Virginia. The Cards are 19th in the nation in bench minutes (41.2 percent).
Noah Locke, seventh in the ACC in three-pointers made per game (2.35), has scored in double figures seven of the last 10 games and on 13 occasions this season. He has made at least three threes in 10 games and has made 22- of-48 threes over the last eight games (.458).
Malik Williams has grabbed at least eight rebounds in 12 of his 19 games and is fourth in the ACC in rebounding (8.5 rpg) and 23rd in the nation in defensive rebounding (6.7 per game). Williams has made 8-of-18 three-pointers over the last four games (.444).

Duke

Beginning a stretch of three straight and four of its next five on the road, No. 9 Duke battles Louisville Saturday at the KFC Yum! Center.
The Blue Devils enter the weekend in a tie for second place in the ACC standings with Notre Dame, each a half game back of Miami.
Sophomore Mark Williams had a career game in last year’s ACC Tournament win over the Cards with career highs in points (23) and rebounds (19) -- the most rebounds by a freshman in ACCT history.
Williams, who is a finalist for the Naismith National Defensive Player of the Year, leads the ACC and is eighth nationally in blocks (3.26).
The ACC Freshman of the Week for the fifth time, Paolo Banchero is averaging a double-double over Duke’s last four games with 18.8 points and 10.0 rebounds, while dishing out 4.8 assists and shooting .583 (28-of-48) from the field in that span.
Banchero is fifth in the ACC in scoring, sixth in rebounding, eighth in field goal percentage and leads all true freshmen nationally in scoring (17.9). His eight 20-point efforts lead all power conference true freshmen. His 19.9 points in ACC games lead the conference.
One of the ACC’s best on-ball defenders, junior Wendell Moore Jr. is holding opposing players to just .349 from the field and .258 from three-point range when he is the primary defender.
Moore is third in the ACC in assists (4.6), third in field goal percentage (.545), seventh in assist/turnover ratio (2.07), 14th in scoring (15.1) and has hit nine of his last 15 from three-point range.
Since January 1, Duke opponents are shooting just .264 (40-of-151) from three-point range -- the best percentage defense by power conference teams and the 16th best overall in that span. For the year, Duke is 35th nationally in three-point defense (.296)
Duke has assisted on 74 percent of its field goals over the last four games (86 assists on 117 FGs), and is 60 percent for the season

(Photo of Dre Davis: Scott Utterback - USA TODAY Sports

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