Preview: Louisville at Florida State

NO. 17 LOUISVILLE CARDINALS (22-6, 10-5) At FLORIDA STATE SEMINOLES (15-14, 7-9)

Game Time: Noon

Location: Donald L. Tucker Center: Tallahassee, Fla.

Television: ESPN2

Announcers: Mike Couzens (play-by-play) and LaPhonzo Ellis (analyst).

Officials: Sean Hull, Tony Chiazza, and Jerry Heater

Favorite: Louisville by 4

All-Time Series: Louisville leads 30-9

Last Meeting: Florida State won 76-69 in the 1991 Metro Conference Tournament championship game

Series History:

Probable Starting Lineups:

Statistics:

Relevant Video:

About Florida State:

Florida State has won five of its last nine, falling 81-77 at Miami on Wednesday in its last game as freshman guard Xavier Rathan Mayes scored 35 points, including 30 points in the last 4:38 as the Seminoles' rally from 18-points down
fell just short. Rathan-Mayes hit 6-of-11 three-pointers and added five assists.

Rathan-Mayes enters Saturday's game against Louisville as the only player in the ACC who leads his team in scoring (14.8 ppg), assists (4.5 apg) and steals (1.1 spg). He is one of only two freshmen in the nation (also Melo Trimble of Maryland) who leads his team in the same three categories in his first season of college basketball. Trimble averages 16.1 ppg, 3.1 apg and 1.3 apg. Rathan-Mayes has scored his career high of 35 points twice (against North Carolina on January 24 and against Miami on February 25) while Trimble's career high of 27 points came against Northeastern.

Florida State won 55-54 at home over then-No. 23 Miami on Feb. 1 for its only victory in five games against ranked opponents this season.

Notable

--Louisville is 46-13 in the month of February over the last 8 seasons.

--Florida State and Louisville meet as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference for the first time on Saturday. The game between the Seminoles and the Cardinals marks the first time the two teams have played since they were both members of the Metro Conference from the 1976-77 season through the 1990-91 season when the Seminoles left the Metro Conference for the ACC.

--Terry Rozier has scored 22 or more points six times in the last 10 games, including 22 points at Georgia Tech in his last game (18 in the second half).

--Louisville's 118 victories over the last four years are tied for the most wins in the nation in that stretch. Louisville is the only school in the nation with three straight 30 win seasons, including a school-record 35 victories amassed by Louisville's 2012-13 NCAA Championship team (30 in 2011- 12, 31 in 2013-14).

--Louisville enters game at Florida State having won their last 8 games played in the State of Florida and 12 games vs. teams from Florida.

--U of L has scored fewer than 70 points in seven straight games for the first time since 1948 (source).

--Florida State has earned five victories over nationally ranked Louisville teams since topping the No. 14 ranked Cardinals, 79-69, on December 22, 1969. Of those five wins over nationally ranked Cardinal teams, the Seminoles have earned three of those wins in Tallahassee with the most recent win coming in the Donald L. Tucker Center (formerly known as the Tallahassee Leon County Civic Center) in 1989.

--Wayne Blackshear needs 77 points to become Louisville's 67th all-time 1,000-point scorer.

--U of L is 159-9 over the last 14 seasons under Coach Rick Pitino when scoring 80 or more points (20-1 last season, 11-1 in 2012-13).

Ken Pomeroy Prediction: Louisville 65, Florida State 61