Louisville Cardinals (20-7, 9-5) at North Carolina Tar Heels (21-6, 9-5)
Game Time: 7 p.m.
Location: Dean E. Smith Center: Chapel Hill, N.C.
Television: ESPN
Announcers: Dave O’Brien (play-by-play), Jay Williams (evaluation), and Molly McGrath (sideline)
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Favorite: Louisville by 2.5
Series: North Carolina leads, 20-8
Last Meeting: Louisville received 83-70 on Jan. 1, 2025 in Louisville
Series History:
Projected Starting Lineups:
Louisville
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G Mikel Brown Jr. (6-5, 190, Fr.)
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G Isaac McKneely (6-4, 195, Sr.)
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G Ryan Conwell (6-4, 215, Sr.)
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F J’Vonne Hadley (6-7, 210, Sr.)
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C Sananda Fru (6-11, 245, Jr.)
North Carolina
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G Seth Trimble (6-3, 200, Sr.)
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G Derek Dixon (6-5, 200, Fr.)
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G Luka Bogavac (6-6, 215, Jr.)
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F Jarin Stevenson (6-10, 215, Jr.)
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C Henri Veesaar (7-0, 225, Jr.)
Injury Reports:
Statistics:
North Carolina’s Season to Date:
Relevant Videos:
About North Carolina:
Two weeks in the past, the North Carolina Tar Heels couldn’t have been driving larger. Hubert Davis’ crew had simply shocked arch-rival Duke at the buzzer, a win that marked its fifth straight and improved the crew to 19-4 general on the season.
A day later, every little thing modified.
Not solely did the Heels endure a “hangover” loss at Miami, however they misplaced freshman star Caleb Wilson to a fractured left hand. While Wilson has repeatedly said that he’ll return to the courtroom this season, he hasn’t performed in UNC’s final three video games, and he received’t play Monday night time towards Louisville. Carolina has gone 2-1 with out their celebrity, however these two wins had been over Pitt and Syracuse, and the loss was to NC State by 24 factors — the Heels’ largest margin of defeat towards the Wolfpack since 1962.
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Even with out Wilson, No. 18 North Carolina is a formidable opponent for a myriad causes, not the least of which being how robust they’ve been at dwelling this season. UNC enters Monday night time with an unblemished 15-0 mark contained in the Dean Dome.
It must also be famous that the loss to NC State got here on an evening the place second-leading scorer and rebounder Henri Veesaar (16.5 ppg/8.8 rpg) additionally didn’t play. Veesaar returned to the lineup for Saturday’s sport towards Syracuse and promptly turned in a 19-point effort. He’s listed as “probable” for Monday night time’s contest.
Veesaar, a local of Estonia who performed two seasons at Arizona earlier than transferring to North Carolina, arrived in Chapel Hill with a “dunks and threes” man status. While he can actually do each of these issues — he’s the one participant within the nation with 40 or extra dunks and 30 or extra three-pointers — the 7-footer has confirmed to have a little bit of a deeper bag than that. He has nice ft within the publish and may rating successfully with both hand, he’s a succesful passer in addition to a man who’s snug placing the ball on the ground, he’s made precisely one three-pointer in 9 straight video games and is taking pictures 44.3 % from three on the season, and he’s additionally a stable inside defender who’s blocking 1.3 pictures per sport.
Yet one other participant who has missed time with damage this season is third main scorer Seth Trimble (13.3 ppg). The fourth-year Tar Heel missed 9 video games close to the start of the season after struggling a damaged left forearm from a weight lifting accident in November. Trimble is a succesful scorer who does his finest work contained in the three-point line, however his main status has at all times been as a defensive star. He’ll be tasked with serving to to decelerate each Mikel Brown Jr. and Ryan Conwell.
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The participant who has seen the most important improve in workload since Wilson’s damage has been 6’5 freshman guard Derek Dixon (5.7 ppg). While Wilson’s scoring hasn’t elevated dramatically, his help numbers have. While being requested to be the offense’s main initiator, Dixon has responded with 13 assists towards 4 turnovers during the last three video games.
Fellow freshman Luka Bogavac (9.9 ppg) is the opposite huge risk on this crew. The native of Montenegro just isn’t afraid to let it fly, making an attempt about 5 threes per sport regardless of averaging 20 minutes of courtroom time. Reserves Jonathan Powell, Zayden High and Kyan Evans are additionally threats from the skin.
Carolina is enjoying at a considerably slower tempo this season than just about each UNC crew of the fashionable period. They do an ideal job at taking good care of the ball and scoring across the rim, however have struggled extra with their three-point taking pictures (though they’re taking greater than ever) and offensive rebounding than most Tar Heel groups earlier than them. It’s additionally notable that UNC is the worst free-throw taking pictures crew within the ACC, taking pictures it at simply 68.6 % collectively from the stripe.
Defensively, UNC has defended the rim extraordinarily nicely, however has struggled extra with perimeter protection. The Heels don’t power many turnovers and, due partly to that lack of playing, are the fourth-best crew within the nation at maintaining their opponents off the free-throw line.
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Notable:
—Louisville has by no means overwhelmed North Carolina twice in a row. The Cardinals received the newest assembly between the 2 groups final season at the Yum Center.
—North Carolina is 15-0 at dwelling to date this season.
—North Carolina is 6-1 towards Louisville in video games performed in Chapel Hill.
—Louisville head coach Pat Kelsey is 176-68 (.721) all-time convention video games as a head coach; he holds an 81-41 (.664) report in league highway video games.
—UNC might be sporting pregame warm-up shirts designed by college students at Hargraves Community Center in Chapel Hill. The crew visited Hargraves in January and labored with college students to design the shirts on tablets given to the middle by Lenovo.
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—Louisville is 11-0 on Saturday this season, and simply 9-7 in video games performed on another day of the week.
—Because of journey issues brought on by the winter storm this weekend within the northeast U.S., North Carolina’s deliberate halftime ceremony honoring R.J. Davis has been postponed. Davis’ No. 4 has been raised to the rafters and he might be honored at a later date.
—Pat Kelsey is 1-2 in his profession in video games towards North Carolina, however 1-0 at U of L.
—Hubert Davis is 4-1 as a head coach in video games towards Louisville.
—North Carolina head coach Hubert Davis is the primary males’s basketball coach in ACC historical past to win 20 or extra sport in every of his first 5 seasons.
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—North Carolina’s Henri Veesaar leads the ACC and is sixteenth within the nation with 13 double-doubles.
—Louisville is 2-5 towards ranked opponents to date this season, and 0-3 towards ranked opponents from the ACC.
—Louisville is 0-4 in highway video games towards ranked opponents below head coach Pat Kelsey.
—Louisville’s final highway win towards a prime 25 opponent was a 79-73 win at No. 3 Duke on Jan. 18, 2020.
—Since that win over the Blue Devils, Louisville has misplaced 10 consecutive highway video games towards prime 25 opponents.
—Louisville is one in all three DI groups with at least six victories of 40 factors or extra this season, becoming a member of Michigan (7) and High Point (6). The six 40+ level wins are probably the most UofL has ever had in a single season.
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—UNC is 11-0 this season and 56-4 below Hubert Davis when holding opponents below 40% from the ground and 0-4 this season and 6-19 below Davis when the opponents make 50%.
—Louisville has hit the 100-point mark six occasions in a season for the primary time ever.
—Louisville is one in all 4 packages that has logged at least three video games of 18+ made 3’s, becoming a member of Cornell (4), Charleston Southern (3) and VMI (3).
—Louisville is 47-0 below head coach Pat Kelsey when main with 5 minutes to play. The Cardinals are additionally 0-14 below Kelsey when trailing with 5 minutes to play.
—Louisville is at present 14th within the nation in scoring margin at +15.0 factors per sport.
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—Louisville is 0-9 below head coach Pat Kelsey when trailing by 5 factors or extra at halftime.
—Louisville is 14-0 over the previous 11 seasons when limiting opponents to no multiple three-point area purpose.
—Louisville is 122-0 all-time when scoring 100 or extra factors in non-overtime video games.
—Louisville has received 167 consecutive video games when holding an opponent below 50 factors.
Ken Pomeroy Prediction: Louisville 81, North Carolina 80