Preview: Louisville Cardinals vs. Wake Forest Demon Deacons.

Wake Forest Demon Deacons (15-4, 7-1 ACC) at Louisville Cardinals (15-5, 8-1 ACC)

- Tipoff: Tuesday, Jan. 28 at 7:00 p.m. EST
- Location: KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Ky.
- How To Watch: ACC Network
- How To Listen: 93.9 FM
- Betting Favorite: Louisville -10.0
- All-Time Series: Louisville leads 9-5
- Last Meeting: Wake Forest won 90-65 on Jan. 20, 2024 (Winston-Salem, N.C.)

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.)

Wake Forest

G Ty-Laur Johnson (6-0, 170, So.)
G Cameron Hildreth (6-4, 195, Sr.)
G Hunter Sallis (6-5, 185, Sr.)
F Tre'Von Spillers (6-7, 215, Sr.)
F/C Efton Reid (7-0, 250, Sr.)

Additional Coverage

Game Notes

Louisville

Louisville is ranked in a national poll, coming in at No. 21 in the AP Poll and No. 22 in the USA Today Coaches Poll on Jan. 27.
Louisville head coach Pat Kelsey previously worked at Wake Forest from 2001-09 under the late Skip Prosser.
Senior guard Chucky Hepburn faces off against childhood teammate and friend Hunter Sallis on Tuesday night.
Four of Louisville’s five losses have all come to teams now ranked in the AP Top 25: No. 2 Duke (17-2), No. 8 Tennessee (17-3), No. 12 Kentucky (14-5), and No. 23 Ole Miss (15-5). As of Jan. 20, those teams, along with Oklahoma (15-4) are a combined 78-19.
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.
Against North Carolina on Jan. 1, Chucky Hepburn made 16 free throws, tying the program record for free throws made in a single game.
Louisville played five ranked opponents by Dec. 14. The Cardinals have the 12th best strength of schedule according to KenPom as of Jan. 26.
As of Jan. 26, Louisville is sixth in the country in 3-point attempts per game (31.1).
As of Jan. 26, Chucky Hepburn is 14th in total steals with 49 and 13th in the country in steals per game at 2.45. Reyne Smith is leading the country in 3’s per game (3.90), second in total 3-pointers (78) and fourth in total 3-point attempts (191).
Sophomore forward James Scott is second in the country in dunks as of Jan. 26 with 46 makes on the year, according to Bart Torvik. He leads the ACC in that category and is now eighth on Louisville’s dunks in a single season list.
Senior guard Reyne Smith was named ACC Player of the Week on Dec. 23 for his 27-point performance at Florida State. It was just the third time in the program’s 11 years in the ACC that Louisville has had multiple ACC Player of the Week awards as Chucky Hepburn also earned that title on Dec. 2.
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.
Chucky Hepburn is the first Cardinal since Russ Smith (2011-12) to log three games of six or more steals in a single season. He grabbed six against No. 12 Tennessee and West Virginia and seven against No. 14/15 Indiana.
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 has just two underclassmen in freshman Khani Rooths and sophomore 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.

Wake Forest

Steve Forbes continues to rewrite the record book for Wake Forest Men’s Basketball. Along with 58 home wins since the start of the 2021-22 season, which is the second most in the country during that time frame, Wake is currently in the midst of its best start to a season since that 2021-22 year.
Wake Forest is currently 15-5 through Jan. 21 and the 2021-22 team went 17-4 through Jan. 24, 2022. In league play, the Deacs started this season 7-1 for the first time since the 1996-97 year. That team started league play going 8-1.
With wins over Syracuse, NC State, Miami, Stanford, Virginia Tech and UNC, Wake won six straight ACC games for the first time since 2004-05.
With road wins over Syracue, Miami and Virginia Tech, Wake has won three straight road games for the first time since the 2003-04 season. A win Tuesday would mark the first time Wake has won four straight ACC road games since the 1996-97 season.
Since the start of the 2021-22 season, Wake Forest holds the fourth-most TOTAL wins among ACC teams.
Wake Forest is one of three schools in the ACC (Cal / Lou) to have two different players each score 30+ points against a conference opponent. Cameron Hildreth dropped 31 at Miami and Hunter Sallis dropped 30 against Stanford. Sallis also dropped 31 in November against Detroit Mercy, making him one of just four ACC players to drop 30+ on two separate occassions (Maxime Raynaud - Stanford, Andrej Stojakovic - Cal, Matthew Cleveland - Miami).
Despite a slower than normal offensive pace on the season, with the Deacs 9th in the ACC in league play in scoring offense, averaging 72.78 points per ACC game, Wake Forest is 3rd in scoring defense. The Deacs hold ACC opponents to an average of 67.3 points per game.
Against ACC opponents, Wake is shooting 46.9 percent from the field and holding ACC teams to 39.5 percent from the field, fourth-best and second-best marks among league teams. Wake Forest is also second in the league during ACC play in 3-point FG percentage defense, holding teams to a staggering 30.7 percent from beyond the arc.
Still on defensive side of the ball, the Deacs lead the league in steals, averaging 7.78 per ACC contest, and have the best turnover margin (+3.44), forcing ACC opponents to an average of 14 turnovers a game.

(Photo of Reyne Smith: Raymond Carlin III - Imagn Images)

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