By Eli Dych and Derek DeBurger
Louisville basketball will look to keep momentum rolling Saturday against the NC State Wolfpack.
NC State, however, is coming off a home loss against rival No. 7 UNC, a game in which the Wolfpack shot an abysmal 26.9% from the field and an even worse 9.5% from three-point range. Louisville, a team defined by their charitable open shots all over the court all season long, will need some help from their opponents to try and secure wins going forward.
Despite the loss, the Wolfpack should be fired up for this game; head coach Kevin Keatts is a former Louisville assistant under Rick Pitino. The game means just a little bit more to him.
As a Pitino disciple, Keatts-coached teams are very similar to the Cards teams of the past. They play fast on both offense and defense, pushing their opponents to play that way, too. This year, however, is a little different for the Pack. The defense is still fast and aggressive, but the offense is rather middling both in pace and ability. KenPom ranks their offense as the 90th most efficient and the 149th fastest tempo.
Compared to Louisville’s 179th-ranked efficiency and 114th-ranked tempo, NC State looks like the superior offense. Louisville plays above their ranking due to the skill of the team while the Pack is relying much more on scheme than skill.
The signature of the Keatts defense is pressure, usually a full-court press. The pesky, handsy defenders have only allowed 68.1 points per game on the full 94 feet. While the press is to be expected, don’t be surprised if the Pack switch to a zone defense for their half-court sets.
This will be a tough game, nonetheless winnable. If the Cards are eager to prove that the win over Miami wasn’t a fluke, and if it wasn’t, there’s a good chance the Cards could string together back-to-back conference wins for the first time in the Kenny Payne era.
