UNC Basketball: Know your Enemy — Louisville
With the addition of the Louisville Cardinals to the ACC, the premiere basketball conference in the country got even better. The Tar Heels and the Cardinals are set to meet twice first in Chapel Hill on January 10th and then again in Louisville on January 31st in what should be up-tempo, highly entertaining basketball. In my opinion, these schools have a chance to become instant rivals, so let’s get to know Carolina’s newest conference foe.
Louisville of course is lead by legendary Head Coach Rick Pitino but when it comes to their players, the conversation starts with power forward Montrezl Harrell. The rising junior and North Carolina native is a man in the post and will no doubt be the focal point of the Cards offense. Harrell is his squads top returning scorer (14.0 per game) and rebounder (8.4 per game). Combine that with that fact that Louisville lost some fire power, Montrezl will be expected to produce on an even higher level this season. It’s a good thing UNC has a plethora of big men because dealing with this guy down low will not be easy.
Although Harrell is a true beast, the other Louisville bigs are raw and inexperienced. This should mean good things for players like Brice Johnson and Isaiah Hicks, who will likely have undersized players checking them if the other big men (mainly c/f Mangok Mathiang) can’t keep up. Guard/Forward Wayne Blackshear is one of the players who could be asked to play out of position. Blackshear is a 6’5 senior wing who plays both inside and out and in the past he’s spent a decent amount of time playing the four especially due to foul trouble. Carolina can only hope this is the case when these teams meet because of the huge advantage they would have on the offensive end and also because Blackshear isn’t a great offensive threat himself, only averaging 8.2 points per game last season.
The Cardinals back court is lead senior point guard Chris Jones. Last season, Jones averaged 10.2 points and 2.9 assist per game. Expect those numbers to greatly increase this year because coach Pitino will be counting on him and this young man can really play. His running mate in the back court will likely be sophomore guard Terry Rozier. In almost 19 minutes per game Rozier put up seven points and 3.1 rebounds. He also shot 37.1 percent from three point range, so he’ll likely be a double-digit per scorer this year. Sophomore Anton Gill is the best of the Louisville reserve guards, yet he only averaged 1.3 points a game last season. They do have three freshman guards but none of them are expected to be key contributors as of yet. The Tar Heels should have an advantage when it comes to the back courts. Marcus Paige gives UNC gives the obvious nod here but the Heels talent and depth should also be huge difference maker when the teams clash.
These games will be two heavyweight prize fights. In my opinion, UNC is little better and they should take care of business by five to seven points inside the Smith Center. The atmosphere for the rematch could be one of the best we see this season in college hoops, so Carolina will have to have one it’s better performances to get hard fought road W. Bottom line, I think this is the beginning to the ACC’s newest rivalry!