The Boston area has spent the last couple of days in snowmageddon. Over 20 inches of snow has come down in that area in the last 72hrs, but that won’t stop the game between the Cardinals and Eagles on Wednesday night. These teams have met five times on the hardwood and this will be their very first meeting as conference foes. BC holds a 3-2 lead in five match-ups with the Cardinals. The last time the teams met in 1996, Louisville won a double overtime game in Louisville.

The Boston College Eagles have split their last four games and look for just their second ACC win on the season. The Eagles earned their first ACC victory under head coach Jim Christian at Georgia Tech on Sunday, 64-62. On the offensive end of the floor they are shooting 43.4% from the field, 30.9% from the three point line, and are averaging 64.6 points a game. This Boston College roster is loaded with a lot of college basketball experience. Out of the 16 players, two are graduate students, six are seniors and three are juniors. According to StatSheet.com, BC is the seventh-most experienced team in the country and the only team in the top 10 from the ACC. Upper classmen have accounted for 90 percent of the scoring, 92 percent of the assists, 85 percent of the minutes and 84 percent of the rebounds. Leading the way for the Eagles Olivier Hanlan is averaging 16.8 points and 4.5 assists while Aaron Brown is averaging 14 points and 3.2 rebounds. Patrick Heckmann is dishing 2.2 assists and Dennis Clifford is grabbing 5.6 rebounds.

Boston College is one of the tallest teams in the country this season and this length and versatility has really helped them on the defensive end of the floor. They have allowed just 63.7 points per game this season through 18 games, and have given up 66 or less points in five of their last six games. They are allowing teams to shoot 43.7 points from the field, and 30.1% from the three.

BC’s 2014-15 OVERALL Rankings Offense | Defense

BC’s 2014-15 Kenpom Rankings
Overall- #113
Defense Adjustment Efficiency
-97.2 ranks 95th
Offense Adjustment Efficiency
-101.9 ranks 156th
-Per Kenpom’s game prediction he has Louisville winning the game 66-60 based on his indexes.

Our Cardinals have won five of their last seven games, and really had a much improved performance on Sunday from an offensive standpoint. The big four are still carrying this team through the season. Terry Rozier is averaging 17.8 points and 5.3 rebounds while Montrezl Harrell is averaging 15.1 points and 9.1 rebounds. Chris Jones is dishing four assists a game and Wayne Blackshear is grabbing 5.1 rebounds a game. Louisville’s 65.2 percent shooting from the field at Pitt was its best since shooting 70 percent vs. Tulane (35-of-50) on Feb. 27, 1993. Louisville has shot above 47 percent from the field on nine occasions this season.

The Cardinals will fly to Boston on game day and this will probably test their focus early on. They will hopefully shake the jet lag pretty quick and look to build on the offensive improvement that they showed on Sunday. I’d like to see them get some wiggle room in this game so Coach Pitino can continue to bring some of the other guys along. Quentin Snider, and Shaqquan Aaron are on the verge of being pretty solid contributors. Mango’s numbers are also slowly moving up and he could really make a big impact on this unit if he maintains the offensive consistency. He will be challenged in the game by the BC length. Montrezl also has struggled at times against teams with good length, so it will be interesting to see what kind of outing he has.

I do think the game-day travel could affect our guys especially the shooting percentages. If that happens I could see this one being a dog fight the whole way.

Louisville 70 Boston College 59