Syracuse faces their last road trip of the regular season with a late-night game at Louisville

When Syracuse and Louisville meet up on Tuesday night, the contest will feature two teams with two different goals. The visiting Orange (15-14, 6-10 ACC) will be looking for a win to solidify their ACC Tournament seeding and help guarantee a .500 record on the campaign. The Cardinals (20-9, 9-7) will be looking to halt a two-game slide and help ensure earning an NCAA Tournament bid.

Like the hosts, SU is looking to stop a losing streak. They have lost their last three outings and nine of their last 12 games. That stretch includes six straight losses away from home, as Syracuse has not claimed a road win since playing at Pittsburgh on January 10.

The Cardinals offense comes primarily from a deep backcourt

Louisville’s backcourt is their offensive engine, as their top four scorers are listed as guards. Ryan Conwell leads the team with 18.4 points per game with Mikel Brown Jr. right behind with 18.2 points per contest.

Conwell has reached double digits in scoring in every game this season, save one, as a volume shooter. The ACC’s leader in 3-point baskets with 93, Conwell has 266 attempts from behind the arc on the season and has made at least five 3’s in a game six times, including four times in conference play.

Brown has been dealing with a recurrence of a back injury from earlier this season and came off the bench in the Cardinals’ last game. A dynamic freshman, Brown poured in 45 points in a rout of North Carolina State earlier this season, splashing ten 3-pointers. He also leads the team with 4.7 assists per game.

Guards J’Vonne Hadley (11.3 points/game) and Isaac McKneely (10.5 points/game) round out the Cards' quartet of double-digit scorers. Hadley is second on the team in rebounding and an efficient scorer while McKneely is another major 3-point threat, having made 76 triples at a 38.8 percent clip.

Sananda Fru is the lone traditional big in the usual Louisville starting lineup, standing 6’11” as their man in the middle. Fru operates almost exclusively in the paint, shooting 76.0 percent from the field and leading the team in rebounds and blocked shots.

All told, that list of outside shooters help the Cardinals average 86 points per game and the third-highest 3-point rate in the nation. While they collectively shoot close to 36 percent on the season, that focus on the arc helps open up the interior, as Louisville is among the top ten in the country in 2-point field goal shooting percentage.

While not as good as the offense, the Cards' defense has had a lot of success this season

The Cardinals also have a strong defense, protecting the defensive backboard with a team effort and holding opponents to a top-50 shooting mark inside the arc on the season. Despite that impressive mark on the season, Louisville has struggled in recent weeks to contain opponents inside that arc, allowing each of their last four opponents to shoot 60.9 percent on 2-point shots.

The Cardinals also have not forced a high number of turnovers in ACC play, failing to force miscues on at least 15 percent of their opponents’ possessions in six of their last seven games.

While the Orange have generally done a solid job protecting the ball over the last month, they have been susceptible to relying on the 3-point shot recently. In four of their last five games, they have attempted at least 25 shots from behind the arc. They won two of those games, but one came when they shot a mere 24.0 percent from long range and they lost the two games with their best 3-point shooting percentage in that span.

SU has a tough task in front of them, particularly on the defensive end. If what they have shown recently remains the case, they will be in line for a long, late night on the road.

Louisville 87, Syracuse 74.

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