Preview: Why Notre Dame has a prime opportunity to snap its Louisville losing streak
Not since Rick Pitino strolled Louisville’s sidelines and Jerian Grant ran Notre Dame’s offense have the Irish beaten the Cardinals on the road.
The three trips to the KFC Yum! Center since Notre Dame’s 71-59 defeat of Louisville on March 4, 2015 have been fruitless and frustrating. The Irish have dropped three in a row at Louisville, including a dispassionate 69-57 loss last season, and six straight to the Cardinals overall. Their last win anywhere over Louisville came on Jan. 4, 2017.
“It has been a while,” head coach Mike Brey admitted Friday.
So, yeah, a win over Louisville is overdue. Saturday (4 p.m. ET, ESPN) is the next chance. This year, it’s not even that daunting a request.
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The Cardinals (11-7, 5-3 ACC) look like a team with clipped wings. The Irish (11-6, 4-2) are battling to push onto the right side of the NCAA Tournament bubble, and road wins are valuable currency in that quest. Louisville is the No. 108 team in the NET rankings, but a road victory over any team ranked 76th through 135th still qualifies as Quadrant 2. Notre Dame has just two wins in the first two Quadrants so far.
Louisville’s record might not convey concerns, but they’ve festered for much of the season. The first warning sign was an overtime home loss to Furman Nov. 12. The Cardinals fell at home to DePaul in early December and dropped a road game at Western Kentucky Dec. 18.
Most recently, they trudged through a three-game ACC losing streak in mid-January. Two of those were losses to sub-100 KenPom teams North Carolina State (home) and Pittsburgh (road). Both were by at least 12 points. The latter offered a look under the hood at a sputtering team seeking something, anything.
“A very disheartening display of basketball today,” head coach Chris Mack told reporters afterward. “Until I can figure out what motivates our group, I don’t see a lot changing.”
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That was six days ago. Louisville snapped its skid with a home win over lowly Boston College Wednesday, but it still rates as the ACC’s No. 13 team in conference-game offensive efficiency, per KenPom.
They are, though, No. 4 in defensive efficiency in league games and top-50 nationally. And Notre Dame’s narrow Monday win at Howard revealed a team that still struggles to handle ball pressure. Howard nearly filched a win when it rolled out a full-court press in the final minutes. Louisville’s rotation has the depth and athleticism to go that route if it wants.
“We’ve not been great in that atmosphere, especially on the road, when people come after us,” Brey said. “Louisville has the ability to do that with playing 10 guys, even though that has not really been their philosophy. But making us handle the ball is something we have to be ready for.”
Notre Dame at Louisville
When: Saturday, Jan. 22 at 4 p.m. ET
Where: KFC Yum! Center, Louisville, Ky.
TV: ESPN
Radio: Notre Dame basketball radio network
KenPom prediction: Louisville 69, Notre Dame 68
Series history: Louisville leads 27-15
Last meeting: Louisville won 69-57 on Feb. 23, 2021 at the KFC Yum! Center
Notre Dame leading scorers: guard Dane Goodwin (15.4 points per game), guard Blake Wesley (14.6 ppg)
Louisville leading scorers: guard Noah Locke (10.8 ppg), forward Malik Williams (9.9 ppg)
Other notes:
• Goodwin remains the only major-conference player who is shooting 50 percent from the field, 40 percent on three-pointers and 90 percent from the foul line while averaging at least 15 points per game. Goodwin’s percentages are 50.8, 47.4 and 91.9, respectively.
• Louisville is the ACC’s No. 4 defense in conference play, per KenPom, but it hasn’t generated stops with pressure and turnovers. The Cardinals are forcing opponents to give the ball away on just 12.7 percent of their possessions in league games, last among 15 ACC teams.
• Wesley’s 13 points at Howard gave him 14 straight games in double figures, which broke a Notre Dame freshman record.
• Louisville allows 39.1 percent of opponent shots to come from three-point range, which is 210th nationally. Notre Dame is 52nd in three-point volume, with 45.2 percent of its shots coming from beyond the arc.
