Preview: Louisville Cardinals vs. Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Louisville Cardinals (19-6, 12-2 ACC) at Notre Dame Fighting Irish (11-13, 5-8 ACC)

- Tipoff: Sunday, Feb. 16 at 8:00 p.m. EST
- Location: Joyce Center in South Bend, Ind.
- How To Watch: ACC Network
- How To Listen: 93.9 FM
- Betting Favorite: Louisville -6.0
- All-Time Series: Louisville leads 26-19
- Last Meeting: Notre Dame won 72-50 on Feb. 21, 2024 (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.)

Notre Dame

G Markus Burton (6-0, 190, So.)
G Braeden Shrewsberry (6-4, 200, So.)
G Sir Mohammed (6-6, 215, Fr.)
F Tae Davis (6-9, 215, Jr.)
F Nikita Konstantynovskyi (6-10, 260, Gr.)

Comparison

See how the Cardinals stack up against the Fighting Irish, and who the statistical models favor: Tale of The Tape, Predictions: Louisville vs. Notre Dame

Game Notes

Louisville

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).
Louisville’s average margin of victory in its ACC wins is 16.5 points.
Louisville’s game at NC State on Feb. 12 was the first time in program history that the team has hit marks of 60% FG, 50% 3FG and 90% from the free throw line in the same game.
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 from the end of 2023-24 to now, accounting for the NET and number of wins. See Pat Kelsey - National Coach of the Year Candidate on Page 15.
As of Feb. 13, Louisville is eighth in the country in 3-point attempts per game (30.2).
As of Feb. 13, Chucky Hepburn is 15th in the country in assists per game (6.2) and 17th total assists (149). He’s also 15th in total steals (56) and steals per game (2.33). Reyne Smith is second in the country in 3’s per game (3.84) and second in total 3-pointers (96). He’s third in total 3-point attempts (240).
Sophomore forward James Scott is second in the country in dunks as of Feb. 13 with 55 makes on the year, according to Bart Torvik. He leads the ACC in that category and is now fifth on Louisville’s dunks in a single season list.
Louisville’s 10-game winning streak was the longest winning streak since the Cardinals won 10 in a row between Jan. 7 and Feb. 8, 2020.
Four of Louisville’s six losses have all come to teams now ranked in the AP Top 25: No. 3 Duke (21-3), No. 5 Tennessee (20-5), No. 15 Kentucky (17-7), and No. 19 Ole Miss (19-6). As of Feb. 13, those teams, along with Oklahoma (16-8) are a combined 93-29.
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.
Fifth-year senior guard/forward Terrence Edwards Jr. earned ACC Player of the Week on Monday and became the third Cardinal to earn the weekly honor this season.
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, Reyne Smith got the accolade on Dec. 23 and Terrence Edwards Jr. was the most recent recipient on Feb. 10. It’s the first time since the 2014-15 season that Louisville has earned the award more than twice in a single season, as Montrezl Harrell and Terry Rozier combined for it five times that year.
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.

Notre Dame

Notre Dame men’s hoops developed a certain narrative over the ACC season of building double-digit first half leads, only to falter down the stretch and lose close. Virginia Tech, Florida State, Miami, Syracuse and NC State all followed the same script. Now, the Irish have been in every ACC game. Case in point, their average margin of defeat has been just 5.5. Overall on the year, the Irish are 3-6 in games decided by six or fewer points.
After 39 days away rehabbing his knee injury, Burton returned on Jan. 4 and he’s been playing his best ball since. The sophomore fired off five consecutive games with 20 or more points in January, which hadn’t been done by an Irish player since Ben Hansbrough in February of 2011.
Burton is quickly approaching 1,000 career points. He enters Sunday’s Louisville matchup with 939. He is currently on pace to become the seventh fastest Irish player to reach 1,000 career points, putting his name alongside the all-time greats.
Tae Davis should be a candidate for Most Improved. He’s averaging a career best 15.8 ppg, up from last year’s 9.2 ppg. His scoring average ranks 12th amongst ACC players. The Indy native is also shooting a career best 49.1 percent, which ranks fifth in the league in overall games.
When Burton was recovering, other Irish had to step up and evolve. We’ve already mentioned Tae Davis’ emergence but we’ve also seen Braeden Shrewsberry’s evolution. The sophomore guard is averaging 13.8 ppg, up from last year’s 10.2. He’s shooting 41.5 percent, which is up from last year’s 39.8.
With Burton averaging 21.3 ppg and Shrewsberry checking in at 13.8, we were curious where that stacked up amongst guard combos in the ACC. The answer - first. Their combined 35.1 tops Pitt’s Lowe/Leggett and Duke’s Flagg/Knueppel.
The Irish have been without their vet leader for a few games as Matt Allocco continues to work with trainer Nixon Dorvillien on his injured right wrist.
The 14-point comeback at Boston College was the largest come from behind win in the Coach
Shrews era.
The Irish completed a season sweep against Boston College for the first time since 2019.
Burton’s 32-point performance at BC was not only a career high but the fourth highest point total for an Irish player in an ACC game.
Burton has been ramping up his defensive pressure. He now ranks second in the ACC in steals/game at 2.0.
Notre Dame was a perfect 16-16 from the free-throw line against Virginia Tech on Feb. 8. It marked the third best free-throw shooting percentage game in program history.
Allocco boasts a true shooting percentage of 61.0 on the year.
Kebba grabbed a career high 12 rebounds in win at BC and recorded the game-winning putback.
Speaking of Kebba, the junior is averaging 2.9 offensive rebounds/game in ACC play, which ranks fifth.

(Photo of J'Vonne Hadley: Brett Davis - Imagn Images)

You can follow Louisville Cardinals On SI for future coverage by liking us on Facebook, Twitter/X and Instagram:

Facebook - @LouisvilleOnSI
Twitter/X - @LouisvilleOnSI
Instagram - @louisvilleonsi

You can also follow Deputy Editor Matthew McGavic at @Matt_McGavic on Twitter/X and @mattmcgavic.bsky.social on Bluesky