Louisville-Boston College preview: cards appear to start 2021 with ACC road win

Louisville Cardinals (6-1, 1-0) at Boston College Eagles (2-6, 0-2)

Game time: 12h04

Location: Silvio O. Conte Forum: Chestnut Hill, Mass.

TV: Regional sports networks (Fox Sports South in Louisville)

Speakers: Tom Werme (play by play) and Brian Oliver (analyst)

Favorite:

Employees: Pat Driscoll, Jerry Heater, Mark Schnur

Series: Louisville leads, 8-4

Last meeting: Louisville won 86-69 on January 29, 2020 at Chestnut Hill

Series history:

Probable initial lineups:

Statistics:

Boston College season to date:

Relevant Videos:

About Boston College:

It is difficult to argue that there is an ACC team with a worse start in 2020-21 than Boston College. The Eagles have the fewest wins of any team in the conference (2) and are one of only two teams in the league to enter the center of most of the conference game with a general losing record (3-5 Notre Dame is the other ).

Most of the eagles’ problems so far this season have come from the defensive side, where they are allowing opponents to shoot 50.0 percent of the field. This is the worst mark of the ACC and puts them in 318th place in the national defense percentage of field shots. BC is also allowing opponents to shoot 59.3 percent from within the arc, good for 323 in DI and the worst mark of any team at a power six conference.

Still, there is some cause for concern if you are a Louisville fan looking forward to Saturday’s game.

For starters, BC played the best basketball of the season in the last two games. They defeated Maine 78-62 on December 22, and nearly toppled NC State in a difficult 79-76 defeat earlier this week (December 30). The eagles’ ability to go crazy from the outside is also worrying. Boston College gets 36.7 percent of its points with three-point shots and, as a team, is 34th in the country in three-point attempts at basket attempt. Almost half of their field goal attempts (45.8 percent) come from outside the arc. That’s a recipe that should be good for at least one head-scratching turn this conference season.

Although the team was never a real competitor in ACC, the Jim Christian era in BC had several extremely talented guards. The Eagles’ latest defense star is junior Wynston Tabbs, who is finally healthy after a couple of injury-prone seasons to start his college career. Tabbs enters 13th place on ACC on Saturday with a score of 15.6 points per game, and fourth place on three points (2.4 per game). He has scored double digits in all eight Boston College games so far this season and is hitting all three with a 42.3 percent drop. He’s the guy Louisville needs to keep from going crazy if he wants to avoid a turnaround.

Second year guard Jay Heath is the other player that Louisville defenders will need to consistently locate on the perimeter. He has scored at least six points in all games except one this season, and has scored 16 or more points in three of BC’s last four games. Heath had 4 of 8 out of three and scored 16 points against Cards in last season’s game.

Lehigh transfer James Karnik, a native of England, is the team’s only other two-digit marker with 10.2 ppg. The 6’9 senior has helped the Eagles immensely since receiving an NCAA layoff on December 3. He’s still leaving the bank, but with Steffon MitchellThe (6.8 ppg / 6.9 rpg) game being erratic at best, Karnik has been the most consistent BC posting on both ends of the court since he was declared eligible.

Makai Ashton-Langford, a transfer from Providence who missed out last season after playing two years for the Friars, is probably Jim Christian’s most talented player outside of Tabbs. He is athletic, he is stealthy in defense (leading the team 15 steals), and he is at his best this season against the most talented teams on the Eagles’ calendar (Villanova, NC State, St. John’s). Unlike Tabbs and Heath, he is not a consistent outsider, which means that Cardinal’s defenders must play against him and focus on cutting his attempts at straight attacks.

What Boston College does well: play fast, throw a ton of three, put Wynston Tabbs and Jay Heath in the backcourt, block shots, two points.

What Boston College doesn’t do well: defend two-point kicks, defend three-point kicks, make quality three-point kicks, make free throws, share the ball effectively, take care of the ball.

Remarkable:

—Louisville started with at least a 6-1 record in seven games for the tenth time in the past 13 years. The Cardinals have won at least seven of their first eight games on nine occasions in the past 13 years.

—Louisville has won eight of its last 10 games in its first game of a new calendar year. The Cardinals dropped to 18th position in the state of Florida in the first 2020 game of last year on January 6th.

—Louisville is 6-1 against Boston College since joining ACC in 2014-15. The only defeat came at the Conte Forum in February 2019. This resulted in a streak of six consecutive U of L victories against BC.

— Carlik Jones’ next assist will be the 500th of his college career

—Louisville hit 81.3 percent of free throws in the last five minutes of their games (26 of 32).

—Boston College is 9-9 at all times in games played on January 2, and 0-1 in ACC games played on that date.

—Boston College has 59-68 all-time ACC games at Conte Forum.

—Carlik Jones is the only player in the ACC to rank among the top 20 in each score (7th in ACC, 16.7 ppg), rebound (18th, 6.2 rpg) and assists (2nd, 5.0 pg).

—Louisville assistant coach Dino Gaudio had a 3-1 record against Boston College in the three seasons he was a head coach at Wake Forest (2007-10).

—Since 2004, Louisville is 124-0 when he leads by more than 10 points in the interval.

—Louisville has 22-0 in the past two seasons, when he scored at least 71 points, including 4-0 this season

—Louisville won 162 consecutive games by holding an opponent with less than 50 points.

—Louisville have won 155 consecutive games by scoring at least 85 points in the regulations.

—Louisville is one of four schools that have won 20 or more games on the court in each of the past 18 seasons. Gonzaga, Duke and Kansas are the others.

Ken Pomeroy prediction: Louisville 73, Boston College 67