Our Cardinals are back at it tonight and will look to recover from a tough loss in conference play on Saturday. The Cards will face a familiar foe tonight when they travel to New York to play an old Big East rival Syracuse. This will be the first meeting between these teams as members of the ACC. Louisville leads the all-time series, 15-7, and the Cardinals have won the two most recent contests with the Orange. The Cardinals have a 3-4 record in games played at Syracuse, winning three of their last four in the Carrier Dome. The last meeting between the two was in the 2013 BIG EAST Tournament championship game, won by the Cardinals, 78-61. Coach Pitino is a former Syracuse assistant. He was on Coach Jim Boeheim’s first staff with the Orange. Chinanu Onuaku is the brother of former Cuse standout Arinze Onuaku. Louisville is 8-4 in the ACC and currently in 4th place. Syracuse is 7-5 in the ACC and currently in 6th place.

The Orange has lost four of their last six games and is still looking for their first win over a ranked team. On the season, Syracuse is averaging 69.7 points on 44% shooting from the field and 31.9% from the three. Leading the way for the Orange is Rakeem Christmas (17.7 ppg, 9.2 rpg, 1.6 apg), Trevor Cooney (14.6 ppg, 2.6 rpg, 2.3 apg), Michael Gbinije (12.9 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 3.5 apg), Chris McCullough (9.3 ppg, 6.9 rpg, 1.1 apg) and Tyler Roberson (7.5 ppg, 7.2 rpg, 1.5 apg). Gbinije leads the ACC in three point field goal percentage for league games only (.509, 29-of-57). The Syracuse Orange have five players averaging at least 6.9 points.

Defensively, Syracuse is allowing 63.1 points on 39.7% shooting from the field and allowing 31.5% shooting from the three. They have given up 70 or more points in four of their last five games. They are ranked 18th nationally in steals (8.4), Syracuse is 70th in the ratings percentage index (RPI) and 48th in the Sagarin Ratings through Feb. 15.

Syracuse 2014-15 Overall Rankings Offense | Defense

Syracuse 2014-15 Kenpom Rankings
Overall- #64
Defense Adjustment Efficiency
-95.0 ranks 52nd
Offense Adjustment Efficiency
-104.8 ranks 111th
-Per Kenpom’s game prediction he has Louisville winning the game 66-64 based on his indexes.

Our Cardinals hope to bounce back tonight after splitting their last four games. On the season, Louisville is averaging 71.6 points on 43.4% shooting from the field and 29.4% shooting from the three. In their six ACC road games this season, the Cardinals have shot a collective 53.2 percent from the field (158-of-311).

The Cards will be without one of their leading scorers, and top defensive players tonight. As everyone knows by now Chris Jones has been suspended for this game. But the Cards still have Terry Rozier who is averaging 18 points and 5.5 rebounds. He has averaged 21.7 points in Louisville’s six conference road games. Montrezl Harrell is averaging 15.4 points and 9.3 rebounds while Wayne Blackshear is grabbing 4.6 rebounds.
Defensively, Louisville is allowing 59 points on 37.6% shooting from the field are is allowing 29.4% shooting from the three. They have given up 56 or less points in three of their last four games.

We have been waiting all season for some of the younger guys to step up and play a bigger role on this team. We saw that happen last week in the final 12 minutes of the Pitt game. With Chris Jones benched at the end of that game Quentin Snider came in and hit some big jump shots to spark a Louisville comeback. Tonight he will get his chance to make a name for himself yet again. We will also need to see a good effort from Anton Gill and Shaqquan Aaron. I think the Cardinals played the best 12 minutes of the season at the end of that Pitt game and there’s no reason to think these guys aren’t capable of playing like that tonight at Syracuse.

Coach Pitino has been really focused on getting the ball in the post area saying this week that he has told his team to look inside with every possession. He also mentioned this week that Anas will see more minutes in place of Mango in the rotation. With the way Cuse plays that tough 2-3 zone it is going to take a solid effort from all our big guys. They will also need to match the physical play of the Cuse post guys.

With Syracuse being banned from any tournaments this season, this is its national championship. Expect a nasty crowd and a motivated team to come out and try its best to pull off the upset. That along with the Cardinals being without their starting point guard will make for one of the most challenging games of the season. It’s gut check time for our Cardinals. A win tonight could make a huge statement, but another loss could raise a lot of concern. I believe that we will see inspired basketball from our guys…

The Beak Prediction:
Louisville 64 Syracuse 60