Preview: Louisville Cardinals vs. Notre Dame Fighting Irish

The Cardinals return home after back-to-back road beatdowns to face the Fighting Irish.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish (9-16, 4-10 ACC) at Louisville Cardinals (8-18, 3-12 ACC)

- Tipoff: Wednesday, February 21 at 7:00 p.m. EST
- Location: KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Ky.
- How To Watch: ESPNU
- How To Listen: 93.9 FM
- Betting Favorite: Louisville -2.0
- All-Time Series: Louisville leads 26-18
- Last Meeting: Notre Dame won 76-62 on Jan. 28, 2023 (Joyce Center - South Bend, Ind.)

Projected Starting Lineups

Louisville

• G Tre White (6-7, 205, So.)
• G/F Mike James (6-5, 200, R-So.)
• G/F Curtis Williams (6-5, 205, Fr.)
• F Kaleb Glenn (6-6, 205, Fr.)
• F Brandon Huntley-Hatfield (6-10, 240, Jr.)

Notre Dame

• G Markus Burton (5-11, 166, Fr.)
• G Braeden Shrewsberry (6-3, 189, Fr.)
• F Tae Davis (6-7, 217, So.)
• F Carey Booth (6-10, 203, Fr.)
• F Kebba Njie (6-10, 254, So.)

Comparison

See how the Cardinals stack up against the Fighting Irish, and who the statistical models favor: Tale of The Tape, Predictions: Louisville vs. Notre Dame

Game Notes

Louisville

• Last time out: Louisville was no match on the road against Pitt, dropping an 86-59 decision in the Steel City this past Saturday.
• KEY FIRST HALF RUN: It was a half of runs as Pitt opened up the game on an 11-2 spurt. Louisville responded with 10 straight points to take a one-point lead, but shortly after the Panthers would rattle off 10 points of their own to take a nine-point lead. Pitt carried a 37-27 advantage into halftime.
• KEY SECOND HALF RUN: The Panthers used a 15-2 run to separate the game from the Cardinals, taking a 12-point deficit to a 25-point one, with just over 10 minutes remaining.
• UofL shot 20 of 45 (44.4%) from the field, 1 of 12 (8.3%) from 3-point range and 18 of 21 (85.7%) from the free-throw line.
• Pittsburgh’s Blake Hinson scored 41 points, the first opposing player to score 40 against Louisville since Jamel Artis, also of Pittsburgh, had 43 on January 11, 2017.
• Mike James played a part in everything on the court with five assists, five rebounds and 13 points.
• Tre White recorded his fourth double-double of the season with 11 rebounds and 16 points.
• Kaleb Glenn made his first six shots while setting a new career high for points at 17. Additionally, he pulled down three boards.
• Brandon Huntley-Hatfield rounded out the double-figure scorers for Louisville with 12 points. He had two blocks, two assists and three rebounds.
• Louisville’s Kenny and Zan Payne and Notre Dame’s Micah and Braeden Shrewsberry represent two of 28 programs in the country where a son is playing for their father as head coach.
• With guards Skyy Clark (rib) and Ty-Laur Johnson (concussion-like symptoms) sidelined Saturday at Pitt, the Cardinals played their second consecutive game with nine total players available, including seven on scholarship.
• Over the last three games, freshman forward Kaleb Glenn is averaging 12.7 points and 6.3 rebounds while shooting 59% (16 of 27) from the field. He’s set a new career high in scoring twice in that span, including 17 points Saturday at Pitt.
• Over the last 17 games, Brandon Huntley-Hatfield is averaging 15.2 points and 8.4 rebounds while shooting 60.2% from the field (100 of 166) with six double-doubles. He had two double-doubles in the first 68 games of his career.
• Guard Ty-Laur Johnson’s 93 assists are the eighth-most ever by a Louisville freshman. Johnson is one of four Louisville freshmen since 1992 to record at least 90 assists in a season, joining current team Video Coordinator Reece Gaines (1999-00), DeJuan Wheat (1993-94) and Jason Osborne (1993-94), the father of senior forward JJ Traynor. Over his last four outings, Johnson is averaging 15.0 points, 7.3 assists and 2.3 steals per game.
• UofL is one of two teams in the nation, along with New Mexico, with five different players who have scored at least 26 points in a game this season – Huntley-Hatfield (29), Tre White (29), Clark (29), Johnson (27) and Mike James (26).

Notre Dame

• The year one Coach Shrewsberry stamp on the program has been the defensive intensity. 14 games and 10 different ACC opponents - all held under their season averages in every single contest, with Miami and Duke being held to season lows at that point in time.
• Since 1996, only one other Irish player had produced two games in the same regular season with at least 15 points, 5 assists and 5 steals. His name was Chris Thomas back in the 2001-02 season. Markus Burton has not only achieved this feat but did so in back-to-back games
• We are officially on Burton Freshman Scoring Record watch as we head into the final stretch of the season. The freshman guard enters Wednesday’s matchup with 406 points on the season - which already puts him in the No. 7 spot. Next up is No. 6 Jerian Grant’s 418. To get to No. 1 Troy Murphy’s 519, Burton would have to average 16.2 points over the next seven games.
• Braeden Shrewsberry is averaging 11.6 ppg in true road contests, shooting 42.5 percent.
• Tae Davis has made 19 of his last 20 from the free-throw line, raising his percentage from .618 to its current .707.
• Coming off the bench on Feb. 10, Logan Imes scored all 8 of his season high points in the 2nd half in the win vs. Virginia Tech. He went 3-fof-4 from the line (final 1:14 of the game) and hit a pivotal three-pointer with 7:23 left.
• Burton has ratcheted up his defensive intensity down the final stretch. The starting point guard has collected 21 steals over the last 5 games. He now averages a team best 2.0 steals per game, which ranks 4th in the ACC.
• Braeden Shrewsberry has secured 8 double-digit scoring performances over the last 11 games. Get this - since Jan. 6, Shrewsberry is averaging 3.0 made threes per game, which ranks 4th in the ACC in that timeframe.
• One of Notre Dame’s greatest strengths this season has been its rebounding. In ACC play, the Irish rank 2nd in rebounding (37.1) and 4th in rebound margin (+3.4). In addition they rank 3rd in both offensive (10.4) rebounds per game and defensive (26.7). The Irish are 8-6 this season when out-rebounding their opponent.
• Overall on the season, Notre Dame has played in 14 games in which the margin of victory was 10 points or less and have gone 6-8. Diving deeper, the Irish are 3-4 in games decided by five points or less.
• Notre Dame only returns 35 points from a season ago, which equates to 1.6% of scoring returning.

(Photo of Emmanuel Okorafor: Jared Anderson - Louisville Report)

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