After Sweeping Virginia in the regular season, The Louisville Cardinals will travel to Dallas and take on Southern Methodist University. This seems to be a huge matchup for potential ACC tournament seeding. Let’s see how the computers have the Cards stacking up against the Mustangs.

Team Leaders

  SMU Louisville
Points Per Game Boopie Miller (14.7) Chucky Hepburn (15.2)
Rebounds Per Game Matt Cross (8.0) J’Vonne Hadley (7.6)
Assists Per Game Boopie Miller (6.0) Chucky Hepburn (5.8)
Steals Per Game B.J. Edwards (2.4) Chucky Hepburn (2.6)
Blocks Per Game Jerrell Colbert (1.1) James Scott (0.8)

Offense

  SMU Louisville
Points Per Game 84.8 78.4
Field Goal Percentage 48.6% 43.7%
Three Point Percentage 38.6% 30.7%
Free Throw Percentage 72.3% 73.3%
Free Throw Attempts Per Game 16.6 16.2
Offensive Rebounds Per Game 13.5 12.5
Assists Per Game 16.7 13.5
Turnovers Per Game 11.4 11.3
Assist to Turnover Ratio 1.5 1.2

Defense

  SMU Louisville
Opponents Points Per Game 71.6 69.6
Opponent Field Goal Percentage 41.2% 43.8%
Opponent 3pt Percentage 34.1% 35.0%
Rebounds Per Game 40.3 38.4
Rebound Margin +7.8 +5.2
Steals Per Game 8.1 6.9
Blocks Per Game 3.8 3.0

Rankings

  SMU Louisville
AP NR 25th
NET 35th 29th
Strength of Schedule 70th 8th
Strength of Record 40th 23rd
BPI 43rd 41st
Kenpom 39th 29th

Predictions

ESPN: According to ESPN analytics, the Cardinals have a 38.1% chance of beating SMU in Dallas on Tuesday night.

Kenpom: Relatively speaking, Kenpom seems to agree with ESPN analytics. Kenpom has the Cards’ chances of winning at 43% with a predicted final score of 79-77.

Personal: I know this winning streak will eventually have to end (unless this is a 2013 repeat, and please let it be). However, I don’t think this will be the game. I would feel better about this game being on a weekend with three days of rest instead of two. With that being said, I think the Cards pull this one out again. Cards 82, SMU 77.