Preview: Louisville Cardinals vs. Stanford Cardinal

The Cardinal and Cardinals square off for a berth in the Final Four.

(Photo of Dana Evans: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports)

No. 2 Louisville Cardinals (26-3, 14-2 ACC) vs No. 1 Stanford Cardinal (28-2, 19-2 Pac-12)

- Tipoff: Tuesday, March 30th at 9:00 p.m. EST
- Location: Alamodome in San Antonio, Tex.
- How To Watch: ESPN
- How To Listen: WKRD 790-AM
- All-Time Series: Louisville leads 1-0
- Last Meeting: Louisville won 86-59 on Mar. 23, 2018 (NCAA Tournament - Sweet 16)

Projected Starting Lineups

Louisville

• G Dana Evans (5-6, Sr.)
• G Hailey Van Lith (5-7, Fr.)
• G Mykasa Robinson (5-7, Jr.)
• G Kianna Smith (6-0, R-Jr.)
• F Olivia Cochran (6-3, Fr.)

Stanford

• G Kiana Williams (5-8, Sr.)
• G Anna Wilson (5-9, Gr.)
• G Lexie Hull (6-0, Jr.)
• G Haley Jones (6-1, So.)
• F Cameron Brink (6-4, Fr.)

Comparison

	Louisville	Stanford
Points Per Game	77.3	78.9
Opp. Points Per Game	60.1	53.1
Scoring Margin	+17.1	+25.8
FG Percentage	46.3%	46.9%
Opp. FG Percentage	36.8%	32.6%
3PT Percentage	34.8%	38.3%
Opp. 3PT Percentage	27.1%	26.9%
FT Percentage	79.4%	70.8%
Rebounds Per Game	39.4	43.1
Rebound Margin	+3.9	+10.5
Assists Per Game	14.8	16.7
Turnovers Per Game	12.1	12.7
Turnover Margin	+3.6	+2.8
Assist/Turnover Ratio	1.2	1.3
Steals Per Game	7.5	8.5
Blocks Per Game	4.9	5.7

Game Notes

Louisville

• Louisville is making its 23rd NCAA Tournament appearance and 12th in 13 tournaments under head coach Jeff Walz. The Cardinals are playing in their 10th straight NCAA Tournament. Louisville is 37-22 all-time. They were 4-11 in their first 11 appearances and are 33-11 in their 12 appearances with Walz. They have moved on to the Sweet Sixteen 10 times, the Elite Eight six times, Final Four three times (2009, 2013, 2018) and twice advanced to the title game. With three Final Fours since 2009, UofL ranks fourth in the country behind UConn (11), Stanford (6) and Notre Dame (6).
• UofL advanced to its third straight Elite Eight and sixth overall (2009, 2013, 2014, 2018, 2019, 2021) with a 60-42 win over Oregon. They are seeking their fourth Final Four appearance (2009, 2013, 2018). UofL is 3-2 all-time in the Elite Eight. With the win on Sunday, Louisville is 6-4 all-time in the Sweet 16. The Cardinals are 3-6 all-time against 1-seeds in the NCAA Tournament. They are 3-5 against 1-seeds under Walz.
• Senior Dana Evans tied her career-high for the fourth time this season with 29 points against Oregon. Her 29 points rank fourth all-time by a UofL player in the NCAA Tournament. Her 126 career points in the NCAA Tournament rank ninth all-time in UofL history.
• In three NCAA Tournament games, UofL is being outscored 48-32 in the first quarter, but is outscoring opponents 164-90 in the other three quarters. Louisville is allowing just 46.0 points per game and 29.5 percent shooting through three NCAA Tournament games, which leads the tournament. They held Marist to 43 points in the first round, which was the fewest points they had allowed all season until they allowed 42 to Oregon in the Sweet 16.
• Freshman guard Hailey Van Lith is averaging 12.7 points, while shooting 4-10 from deep in three NCAA Tournament games. She is shooting 62.5 percent from the floor. After leading the team with 17 points against Marist, she had 13 points on 4-4 shooting, 2-2 from deep, against Northwestern.
• Junior guard Elizabeth Balogun has six blocks during the tournament, which ties the most by a UofL player in a single NCAA Tournament with Sara Hammond (2013), Chauntise Wright (2008).
• Junior guard Mykasa Robinson tied her career-high with nine rebounds vs. Northwestern. She is averaging 4.3 points and 7.7 rebounds in the NCAA Tournament.
• Redshirt junior guard Kianna Smith is shooting 6-12 from deep in the NCAA Tournament.
• Freshman forward Olivia Cochran had 15 rebounds in the win over Northwestern, which is the most by a Cardinal this season and her career-high. It is also tied for second all-time by a UofL player in an NCAA Tournament game. Candyce Bingham had 20 rebounds vs. North Carolina in 2008 and 15 against Baylor in 2009. She is averaging 8.7 rebounds in two NCAA Tournament games.
• Evans continues to rack up accolades as she has been named one of four finalists for the Wade Trophy and the Naismith Women's Trophy. She was named a Wooden Award, Associated Press, espnW and Sports Illustrated First Team All-American.
• Evans was named ACC Player of the Year for the second consecutive season. Evans joins Asia Durr as the only players in program history to earn conference player of the year multiple times. She is the ninth player in ACC history to win the award in back-to-back years. Last season, she became the first player in league history to go from winning ACC Sixth Player of the Year to winning ACC Player of the Year the following season. It marks the fourth straight year that the conference’s top honor has come from the Cardinals program, as Louisville joins Duke as the only two programs with the ACC Player of the Year in four consecutive years. On Wednesday, Evans was named Kay Yow Scholar-Athlete of the Year. She joins Durr as the only Cardinals to win this prestigious award.
• In addition to Evans being named the ACC Player of the Year, Mykasa Robinson was named to the All-ACC Defensive Team and Olivia Cochran and Hailey Van Lith were named to the All-ACC Freshman Team. Robinson is the first named to All-Defensive team since Kylee Shook and Jazmine Jones did so last season, while Cochran and Van Lith are first on All-Freshman team since Evans did so in 2017-18. Liz Dixon, Evans, Robinson, Kianna Smith and Van Lith were named to the All-ACC Academic team. Evans, Kianna Smith and Van Lith were all named to the ACC All-Tournament team.

Stanford

• Tara VanDerveer is the winningest coach in women’s basketball history with 1,122 career victories, passing Pat Summitt on Dec. 15, 2020 at Pacific.
• Stanford earned its 33rd consecutive and 34th overall NCAA Tournament bid by collecting the Pac-12’s automatic berth into the field after winning its 14th conference tournament championship. The Cardinal is 92-31 (.748) all-time at the NCAA Tournament.
• No team has won more games away from home this season than Stanford (22)
• The Cardinal is 7-1 against ranked competition
• Cameron Brink’s 75 total blocks are eighth nationally and first among all freshman.
• No team has shot over 41.8 percent against the Cardinal all season for the first time since at least 1999-00, including 11 opponents shooting 29% or worse.
• Stanford is a No. 1 seed for the first time since 2013 and overall No. 1 seed for the first time since 1996.
• Six players are averaging at least seven ppg., including four averaging over 10 ppg
• Stanford won its 24th Pac-12 regular season championship and 14th tournament championship
• Stanford held each of its opponents to 77 points or less through 30 games for the first time since 2015-16 ... Kiana Williams recently broke into the top-10 in program history in career scoring, now with 1,807 points
• She broke the Stanford record for career 3-pointers in the first round, now with 308.
• Stanford has hit more 3-pointers (43) through the first three rounds of the NCAA Tournament than any team in history.
• Boasting one of the deepest rosters of talent in the nation, Stanford returned a healthy majority of every statistical category from a season ago, including 84 percent of its scoring, 69 percent of its rebounding, 85 percent of its assists, 88 percent of its made 3-pointers, 68 percent of its blocks and 82 percent of its steals.
• Of note has been the return of Haley Jones, the number one recruit in the high school Class of 2019. Jones played in 18 games for the Cardinal as a freshman before suffering an injury that would end her season.
• Already named an honorable mention All-American by the Associated Press, along to the 15-player All-Pac-12 team, Jones has proven herself as one of the nation’s most versatile players. Jones leads Stanford in rebounding, averaging 7.4 per game, and ranks second with 12.8 points per game and a total of 87 assists, just behind Williams in both categories. Her shooting percentage of 53.5 percent is the second-best in the conference and ranks 29th nationally. Jones leads Stanford with seven double-doubles this year, including two at the Pac-12 Tournament, and has scored in double figures 20 times, with nine double figure rebounding performances. She ranks third on the team with 20 blocks and has the most defensive rebounds (167) of any player in the league.
• Francesca Belibi has surpassed her season total in points from last year, doing so in less games as a sophomore. Her 54.6% shooting from the field would lead the Pac-12, but is shy of meeting the 5FG/ game minimum. Belibi is only the eighth woman to dunk in a college game and the fifth to dunk in multiple games.
• Arguably the team’s most improved player, Hannah Jump transformed her body over the summer and has transformed into a complete player on the court for the Cardinal. Jump has scored in double figures 12 times this season, including a season-high 17 points twice, vs. Missouri State and Arizona State. She is second on the team in made 3-pointers with 57, shooting 43.2% from deep. After finishing her freshman season with 22 total rebounds, Jump has 68 this season, averaging 2.3 a game. She’s also more than doubled her assist numbers from her rookie season.
• Ashten Prechtel has played in 27 games for the Cardinal, featuring two double-figure scoring performances, including a 15 point, 11 rebound double-double against USC in the Pac-12 Tournament. She’s hit 18 3-pointers and averages 4.3 rebounds per game.
• Named a third-team All-American by the Associated Press, Kiana Williams leads the Cardinal in minutes played, points, assists and made 3-pointers, doing so for the second year in a row. Leading the team with averages of 14.5 points and 3.0 assists per game, Williams again has proven herself as the heartbeat of Stanford’s success.

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