LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — After a 19-game improvement and second-place finish in the Atlantic Coast Conference, the University of Louisville was not rewarded by the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee.
In fact, the Cards were given an 8-seed in the South Regional of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament Sunday.
The Cards (27-7) will open play against Creighton, the Big East runner-up, on Thursday at Rupp Arena in Lexington. If UofL beats the Bluejays, they are likely to play the overall top seed Auburn. That's a difficult and disrespectful draw.
The 8-seed was a jarring surprise. Most bracket projections had Louisville a 6-seed. BracketMatrix is a website that collected bracket projections from 110 sources. Coach Pat Kelsey's team was a 5-seed on 25 sites and a 4-seed on four others. The Cards were listed as an 8-seed by two bracketologists -- and the committee.
Here's another puzzling thought: Louisville finished tied with Clemson for second place in the ACC but they beat the Tigers twice. Yet Clemson was rewarded with a 5-seed, evidently on the strength of victories over Duke and Kentucky.
Creighton is ranked No. 37 in Ken Pomeroy's analytics formula, while Louisville is No. 23. The Cards are also No. 23 in the NCAA NET formula. That should translate to a 6-seed.
The Bluejays' best non-league win came against Kansas. Inside the Big East, Creighton won one of three games against league champion St. John's.
Creighton is led by Ryan Kalkbrenner, its 7 foot, 1 inch senior center. Greg McDermott coached Creighton to the Elite Eight in 2023 and Sweet Sixteen last season. The Bluejays rank 34th nationally in offensive efficiency and 42nd in defensive efficiency;.
It will be the program’s first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2019 as coach Pat Kelsey and his players try to deliver the Cardinals’ first NCAA victory since 2017.
Kelsey, the ACC coach of the year, will also be seeking his first NCAA Tournament victory. Kelsey is winless in four tournament games, losing twice at Winthrop and twice at Charleston against higher seeded teams. This will be his first tournament game against a team with a lower seed.
The Cards joined Duke, Clemson and North Carolina as the only ACC teams to make the 68-team field. Louisville went 18-2 in the ACC, finishing one game behind the Blue Devils.
U of L defeated Stanford and Clemson (for the second time) at the ACC Tournament in Charlotte last week before losing to Duke, 73-62, in the title game Saturday night.
The Cards have played their last four games without guard Reyne Smith, who led the nation in three-point field goals made before he suffered an ankle injury on March 5. On Saturday night Smith said that he expected to play this week.
Although Kelsey is chasing his first NCAA Tournament win, the Cards have several players who have enjoyed success in March.
Point guard Chucky Hepburn, a first-team all-ACC performer, won a first-round game as a freshman for Wisconsin in the 2022 tournament. Last season Hepburn and the Badgers were upset in the first round by James Madison, which was led by current U of L senior Terrance Edwards, who scored 14 points.
Cards’ reserve forward Aboubacar Traore had 14 points and 15 rebounds as Long Beach State lost its NCAA opener to Arizona last season. Forward J’Vonne Hadley scored 25 points with 16 rebounds and 12 assists in three NCAA games in 2024 as Colorado defeated Boise State and Florida before losing to Marquette.
Smith had 13 points and James Scott scored 11 as Charleston lost its NCAA opener to Alabama, 109-96, last March. Noah Waterman scored 3 points in BYU’s opening round upset loss to Duquesne last season.
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