Noah Locke Louisville vs. Clemson 2-19-2022 Photo by William Caudill, TheCrunchZone.com

Cards Host Clemson on Tuesday Night

Mark BlankenbakerJanuary 6, 2025

Louisville men’s basketball returns home to the KFC Yum! Center for a midweek matchup against Clemson on Tuesday evening at 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPNU.

The Cardinals recently won at Virginia 70-50, the first time UofL has won in Charlottesville since 1990. The Tigers are currently undefeated in ACC play, most recently besting Cal 80-68.

Louisville leads the all-time series 9-6 over Clemson. The Tigers have never won in Louisville as the Cards hold a perfect 8-0 record at home.

Louisville’s five losses have all come to teams now ranked in the AP Top 25: No. 1 Tennessee (14-0), No. 4 Duke (12-2), No. 10 Kentucky (12-2), No. 12 Oklahoma (13-1) and No. 24 Ole Miss (12-2). As of Jan. 6, those teams are a combined 63-7.
Against North Carolina on Jan. 1, Chucky Hepburn made 16 free throws, tying the program record for free throws made in a single game.
Louisville played five ranked opponents before the New Year. The Cardinals have the 12th best strength of schedule according to KenPom as of Jan. 6.
As of Jan.6, Louisville is eighth in the country in 3-point attempts per game (31.1), 52nd in free throw attempts per game (23.1) and 54th in free throws made per game (16.7) .
As of Jan. 6, Chucky Hepburn is 14th in the country in steals per game at 2.53 and 10th in total steals with 38. Reyne Smith is fourth in total 3-pointers made (53), fifth in the country total 3-point attempts (138) and ninth in 3-pointers per game at 3.53.
Sophomore forward James Scott is seventh in the country in dunks as of Jan. 6 with 30 makes on the year, according to Bart Torvik. He leads the ACC in that category.
Senior guard Reyne Smith was named ACC Player of the Week on Dec. 23 for his 27-point performance at Florida State. It was just the third time in the program’s 11 years in the ACC that Louisville has had multiple ACC Player of the Week awards as Chucky Hepburn also earned that title on Dec. 2.
Against Florida State on Dec. 21, Chucky Hepburn and Terrence Edwards Jr. both logged eight assists apiece; it was the first Louisville game to have two Cardinals log at least eight assists each in the same game since Peyton Siva and Gorgui Deng both had eight against Syracuse in the 2013 Big East Tournament championship game.
Louisville’s 89-61 victory over No. 14/15 Indiana in the quarterfinals of the Battle 4 Atlantis was Louisville’s first win over a ranked team since beating No. 19/20 Virginia Tech 73-71 on Jan. 6, 2021. It’s the highest ranked opponent the Cards have beat since beating No. 3 Duke 79-73 on Jan. 18, 2020.
In the win over Indiana, UofL’s Chucky Hepburn logged 16 points, 10 assists and seven steals. He’s the first DI player with at least those marks since Markquis Nowell of Kansas State did it against West Virginia with 23 points on Dec. 31, 2022.