Louisville Excluded From Updated NCAA Tournament Projections
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Things have been trending in the wrong direction for the Louisville baseball program over the last month-plus. As a result, national publications are starting to doubt their chances of punching a ticket to the Big Dance.
The folks over at both Baseball America and D1Baseball released their Week 13 projections for the NCAA Tournament, and neither have the Cardinals as part of their Field of 64. Both publications slated the Cardinals as the No. 3 seed in the Nashville Regional as part of their Week 12 projections the week prior.
"Louisville is getting dicey," Co-editor Aaron Fitt said on D1Baseball's Week 13 Nerdcast. Managing editor Kendall Rogers added that the Cardinals "would be out for me," while SEC writer Mark Etheridge went as far to say that "I don't even think they're on the bubble this week."
Louisville (29-19. 9-15 ACC) had an extremely promising beginning to their 2023 campaign, starting off their year at 16-1 and ranking as high as the No. 2 team in the country. However, the Cardinals had a bit of a midseason slump and went 9-6 over their next 15 games, but the bottom has completely fallen out since then, as they have dropped 12 of their last 16.
Louisville has just seven games left - six coming in ACC play - until the start of the ACC Tournament, and even that is not a guarantee. The Cardinals currently sit at 13th in the overall conference standings, with a road series at No. 21 Virginia coming up next and a home series vs. Florida State to cap off the regular season.
While their RPI ranking of 35th certainly keeps them in contention for an at-large bid, their record in conference play is their biggest detractor. Barring the Cards sweeping both the Cavaliers and the Seminoles - or at least going 5-1 in that stretch - they would have to do serious damage in the ACC Tournament or outright win it.
Under the first 13 years of Dan McDonnell's tenure, the Cardinals have missed the NCAA Tournament just once, coming in 2011. Since COVID wiped away the 2020 season, Louisville is threatening to miss the tournament for the second time in three years. They came up short in 2021, but rebounded to make the NCAAs in 2022 before falling to Texas A&M in the Super Regional round.
Pool play for the ACC Tournament is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, May 23. Selection Monday for the NCAA Tournament will take place on Monday, May 29 following the conclusion of all conference tournaments.
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