First place is on the line in the ACC as Jordan Nwora and the Louisville Cardinals head down to Durham to take on Tre Jones and the Duke Blue Devils.
There is little certainty this season in college basketball, but one thing we can reasonably assume is that the ACC’s best team will probably end up with a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The top two contenders in the conference, Duke and Louisville, have the talent and resume to earn that honor, making tonight’s showdown in Durham absolutely massive.
The visiting Cardinals have righted the ship after a two-game losing streak, although Louisville should feel no shame dropping games to Kentucky and Florida State. This is the third consecutive ACC road game for Louisville, which has won the first two games on the trip, including a 73-68 victory at Pittsburgh earlier in the week.
The Cardinals are a deep team, but their unquestioned leader is their best player, junior forward Jordan Nwora. After bypassing a potential shot at being drafted in the lottery last June, Nwora returned to Louisville and is leading the team in scoring with 20.4 points per game, chipping in 14 for the Cardinals in their win over the Panthers.
The home team tonight will be the Duke Blue Devils, who were tripped up in a road game at Clemson on Tuesday night. Duke didn’t play badly in that game, shooting 50 percent from the floor and 40 percent from three, but they were out-shot by a Clemson team that couldn’t miss.
That game also had a bit of trap potential for Duke, which entered the game on a lengthy winning streak and may have looked ahead to this matchup with Louisville. Now that the Blue Devils have lost a game, it’s a safe bet that legendary coach Mike Krzyzewski has his team on high alert for this matchup.
This will be the only regular-season meeting between two of the ACC’s best teams, so the stakes in this contest are absolutely massive. Whoever wins figures to be in the driver’s seat for the conference’s regular-season title and have a leg up on the other for seeding in March.
How to watch Louisville at Duke
- Date: Saturday, Jan. 18
- Time: 6:00 p.m. ET
- Location: Durham, NC
- Venue: Cameron Indoor Stadium
- TV: ESPN
- Live Stream: WatchESPN
- Odds: The Action Network
- Prediction: Louisville
For more NCAA basketball news, analysis, opinion and features, check out more from the FanSided college basketball section to stay on top of the latest action.