What to know about Notre Dame women's basketball at Louisville
An ACC women’s basketball rivalry is renewed Thursday night when Notre Dame takes on Louisville at the KFC Yum! Center. Here’s everything you need to know about the massive matchup.
Notre Dame women’s basketball at Louisville game info
- Teams: No. 12 Notre Dame (17-4, 7-3 ACC) and No. 15 Louisville (19-4, 8-2)
- Head coaches: Niele Ivey (78-29, fourth year at Notre Dame); Jeff Walz (459-129; 17th year)
- Date: Feb. 8, 2024
- Location: Louisville, Ky.
- Time: 6 p.m. ET
- Television: ESPN
- TV broadcasters: Ryan Ruocco, Rebecca Lobo and Holly Rowe
- Radio: 99.9 WQLQ-FM in South Bend
- Radio broadcaster: Sean Stires
Matchup notables
• These two teams dueled three times in a three-week span at the end of last season. Notre Dame won both times in the regular season, once at home and once on the road, while Louisville blew out the short-handed Irish, 64-38, in the ACC Tournament.
• Five of the nine Louisville players who average at least 10 minutes per game are transfers. That includes guard Kiki Jefferson, who leads the Cardinals with 13.4 points per game. She spent her first four seasons at James Madison, where she averaged over 18 points per game in the last two.
• It’s a team effort these days for Walz’s team. Hailey Van Lith, now at LSU, averaged more than 16 shots per game as the Cards’ leading scorer a year ago. Jefferson gets her 13.4 on 8.8 shots per game. Rare does she creep into double digits, but when she does she’s a threat to go off. In the last two weeks, she scored 27 points vs. Boston College and 21 in a win over Syracuse.
• Louisville ranks No. 6 in the ACC in both scoring offense at 74.7 points per game and scoring defense at 60.6 points per game. Notre Dame is No. 1 in the former at 83.1 and No. 5 in the latter at 60.3.
• The Cardinals rank toward the bottom of the ACC in rebounding, reeling in 37.0 per game for a league placement of 12th out of 15 teams, but they also rank No. 1 in opponent rebounds per game at 30.3. Notre Dame grabs 42.0 rebounds per game and surrenders 34.3, good for No. 4 and No. 5 in the ACC, respectively.
• Louisville is coming off a 77-67 loss at NC State on Monday. The Cardinals also have losses to Alabama on Nov. 24, UConn on Dec. 16 and North Carolina on Jan. 21. The Huskies beat them 86-62. Notre Dame just recently beat the Huskies 82-67.
• Notre Dame has an all-time record of 18-13 against Louisville. The Irish are 6-5 on the road in the series.
• Virginia Tech and NC State are at the top of the ACC standings with two losses. Notre Dame has three. It’s imperative for the Irish to keep pace and not drop back into the pack of four-loss ACC teams with Florida State and North Carolina.
