I literally cut my teeth as a Louisville Basketball fan when they were members of the Metro Conference. I can remember it like it was yesterday lying in the floor watching that old Zenith console TV. It will be like Déjà Vu on Tuesday night when Louisville renews an old Metro Conference rivalry with Virginia Tech. The Cardinals and the Hokies have met 36 times in a series that started in 1978. The Cardinals lead the series 28-8, and have won the last nine straight dating back to the last meeting that came with the dissolution of the Metro back in 1995. This is the only meeting between the two schools this season. The Cards will also face a familiar foe in the Hokie head coach Buzz Williams who had some great battles with coach Pitino when he was the Marquette head man.

RICK PITINO PREVIEWS VIRGINIA TECH

Buzz Williams is a very good coach and he is in the early stages of rebuilding the Virginia Tech program. His young Hokies are 8-7 and 13th in the ACC. The Hokies have five freshmen seeing significant minutes. Justin Bibbs (13.5 ppg), Ahmed Hill (8 ppg), Jalen Hudson (5.9 ppg), Malik Muller (4 ppg), and Satchel Pierce (3.6 ppg) are averaging 35.0 points per game and their 550 points accounts for 49.5 percent of the team’s scoring. This group has made 34 of
the 75 available starts for the team this season. Adam Smith (12.7 ppg), Joey Van Zegeren (9.8 ppg), and Devin Wilson (7.9 ppg) are the upperclassmen leading the way.

The Hokies appear to have the offensive firepower to be competitive scoring 69.4 points a game. This team can shoot the basketball and are averaging 47.8% from the field good for 32nd in the nation. They are shooting 40.4% from the three and 61.1% at the free-throw line. But getting both ends of the floor on the same page has been the issue. They are giving up an average of 79 points during a three game skid that was capped off with an 86-75 defeat at Florida State last week. They are allowing opponents to shoot 40.4% from the floor and 32.7% from the three.

2014-15 Overall Rankings Offense | Defense

Virginia Tech 2014-15 Kenpom Rankings
Overall- #183
Defense Adjustment Efficiency
-102.4 ranks 210th
Offense Adjustment Efficiency
-100.8 ranks 165th
-Per Kenpom’s game prediction he has Louisville winning the game 77-57 based on his indexes.

Our Cardinals are coming off one of their best performances of the season especially on the offensive end of the floor where they won the shooting battle 47.5% to 43%. They struggled on defense especially in the final 8 minutes giving up a 13 point lead and giving up 15 offensive rebounds that helped give the Tar Heels eight more looks at the basket. There was also a lack of scoring outside that of Jones, Rozier, Blackshear, and Harrell. And Montrezl had a very mediocre outing. It will be interesting to see how our guys come out of the gate on Tuesday night.

We need to get more production out of our 5 spot guys Mango, Onuaku, and Anas. We also need to get more production out of our bench that was outscored 20-0 in the loss to UNC. Coach Pitino has said that he will make these areas a priority moving forward and Tuesday night will be a good chance to see if our big guys and bench can get things moving in the right direction. This Hokies program is on their way to being very competitive but I don’t give them much of a shot in this one.

The Beak Prediction:
Louisville 78 Virginia Tech 60