Louisville will take on the Michigan Wolverines Tuesday night inside the KFC Yum! Center. Prior to the game the Cardinals will honor the 3 Most Outstanding Players of its 3 National Championship teams: Darrell Griffith, Pervis Ellison and Luke Hancock. The Cards defeated Michigan in 2013 inside the Georgia Dome to win its 3rd title.

#4 Michigan (7-0) has a new head coach in Juwan Howard and the Wolverines made a dramatic entry into the Top 5 after having been unranked the previous week. The swift rise into the rankings come as a result of a 3-0 record in the Battle for Atlanits wherein UM beat Iowa State, #6 North Carolina and #8 Gonzaga.

Michigan is a hot-shooting team led by Isaiah Livers who averages 17.0 ppg and is shooting 51.2% from 3-point range (on 41 attempts!). But Livers isn’t the only shooter with range, he’s joined by Eli Brooks (50% on 32 attempts), David DeJulius (47.8% on 23 attempts) and Zavier Simpson (44.4% on 14 attempts).

Senior Point Guard Zavier Simpson (12.3 ppg, 4.7 rpg, and 9.7 apg) makes this team go with his 68 assists through 7 games. Simpson was previously committed to Chris Mack at Xavier before pledging to Michigan. Senior Center Jon Teske must be kept off the glass as the primary offensive rebounding threat.

At Monday’s press availability in Ann Arbor, Sophomore David DeJulius indicated that the#4 Wolverines are up for the ACC/Big Ten Challenge vs. the #1 Louisville Cardinals saying, “We want it all. We want all the smoke.”

College Basketball is outstanding and these two teams have great recent history between the two programs as Louisville defeated Michigan in the 2013 National Championship game and Michigan eliminated the Cards in the NCAA Second Round in 2017.

Also of note is Lamarr “Fresh” Kimble’s former head coach Phil Martelli at Saint Joseph’s is Juwan Howard’s assistant head coach with the Wolverines.

LouisvilleMichigan
Strength of Schedule (Ken Pom)308th85th
PPG81.7 (18th)82.4 (15th)
Avg Scoring Margin20.4 (6th)16.4 (21st)
Field Goal %51.9% (5th)52.9% (2nd)
Effective FG%59.4% (5th)61.4% (2nd)
2-pt FG %58.4% (10th)60.0% (4th)
3-pt FG %40.8% (14th)42.4% (9th)
FT %75.8% (44th)67.8% (228th)
Team Fouls Per Game16.6 (112th)13.3 (7th)
Opp Team Fouls Per Game16.7 (234th)15.0 (306th)
FT Attempted Per Game18.9 (154th)12.9 (325th)
Opp FT Attempted Per Game15.6 (88th)13.6 (38th)
Opp Shooting %36.3% (14th)40.7% (103rd)
Opp Effective FG%42.2% (16th)44.5% (50th)
Opp 2-pt FG %41.6% (24th)44.1% (63rd)
Opp 3-Pt FG %28.7% (60th)30.4% (98th)
Rebound Rate56.6% (13th)51.7% (113th)
Assists Per Game16.4 (25th)17.4 (10th)
Turnovers Per Game12.0 (61st)14.1 (206th)
Blocks Per Game2.6 (222nd)5.4 (19th)
Steals Per Game5.0 (289th)5.7 (236th)
Opp Turnovers Per Game10.9 (329th)12.3 (261st)
Opp Blocks Per Game1.9 (23rd)1.1 (5th)
Opp Steals Per Game5.6 (83rd)7.0 (222nd)
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@UofLSheriff50. Louisville native, University of Louisville Business School Grad c/o 2004. Co-Founder of TheCrunchZone.com

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