Louisville vs. Michigan preview: Cards and Wolverines meet in 2013 championship rematch

NO. 2 LOUISVILLE CARDINALS (25-8) vs. NO. 7 MICHIGAN WOLVERINES (25-11)

NCAA Tournament Second Round

Game Time: 12:10 p.m.

Location: Bankers Life Fieldhouse: Indianapolis, Ind.

Television: CBS

Announcers: Jim Nantz (play-by-play), Bill Raftery (analyst) and Tracy Wolfson (reporter)

Favorite: Louisville by 3.5

All-Time Series: Louisville leads 3-0

Last Meeting: Louisville won 82-76 on April 8, 2013 in the national championship game in Atlanta

Series History:

Probable Starting Lineup:

Statistics:

Relevant Videos:

About Michigan:

Perhaps the hottest team in the tournament, Michigan has won six straight games and is playing the best basketball of its season at the perfect time. The Wolverines won the Big Ten tournament championship in Washington last week, and then knocked off Oklahoma State in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Friday thanks to a 16-for-29 shooting performance from behind the three-point line.

Michigan leads the country in fewest turnovers per game with just 9.2 miscues per contest. The Maize and Blue also ranks sixth in the country in fewest fouls, committing just 15.1 per game, and are 11th nationally in free-throw percentage, shooting a school-record 77.6 percent from the charity stripe.

Derrick Walton Jr. is the Wolverine’s best player, and is currently riding a hot streak that brings to mind memories of former national POY Trey Burke. Walton is just the 13th player in Big Ten history, to surpass 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 400 assists for his career. He’s scored 13 points or more in each of Michigan’s last 10 games, and is coming off a 26-point performance against Oklahoma State in which he buried 6-of-9 three-pointers.

Notable:

—Louisville is seeking to reach the NCAA Sweet 16 for the 22nd occasion and the fifth time in the last six years when the Cardinals face Michigan on Sunday.

—The Cardinals haven’t been eliminated from the NCAA tournament before the Sweet 16 since 2011. They did not participate in the tournament in 2016.

—Michigan set a new school NCAA Tournament record with 16 three-point field goals against Oklahoma State. The 16 triples is also tied for the fifth-most in a single game in NCAA Tournament history and helped U-M set a new school record with 344 made three-pointers this season.

—Rick Pitino is 4-1 vs. John Beilein, including 3-1 as Louisville’s head coach.

—Michigan is 7-0 in neutral court games this season. Included in that record is victories over five NCAA tournament teams: SMU, Marquette, Minnesota, Purdue and Wisconsin.

—Louisville is 4-2 all-time versus No. 7 seeds in the NCAA tournament.

—Michigan is 13-10 all-time at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, with 21 of those 23 games coming in the Big Ten Tournament. U-M last played in the NCAA Tournament in Indianapolis in 2014 when the Wolverines played Tennessee in the Sweet 16 and Kentucky in the Elite Eight at Lucas Oil Stadium.

—The Wolverines enter Sunday’s gamed ranked fourth in the nation in adjusted offensive efficiency, and 74th in adjusted defensive efficiency. Despite obviously being capable of scoring 90+ points, Michigan still ranks just 340th out of 351 Division-I teams in tempo.

—Louisville has won 27 of its last 35 games in the NCAA Tournament (since 2005), advancing to the final eight teams five times in the last 10 years (2008, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2015).

—The Cardinals have also won 32 of their last 42 games during the month of March over the last six years.

—Louisville is 14-0 this season in games where it makes seven or more three-pointers. It is 11-8 in games where it makes fewer than seven three-pointers.

—Rick Pitino has a 54-18 record in NCAA Tournament play (.750), ranking him second among active coaches in winning percentage and 10th all time.

—Michigan has a 53-25 all-time record in the NCAA Tournament.

—This is the third time Louisville has entered the NCAA Tournament as a No. 2 seed. U of L won both the 1980 and 1986 national championships as a two seed. The Cards have a 12-0 record as a No. 2 seed since the NCAA began seeding teams in 1979.

Ken Pomeroy Prediction: Louisville 70, Michigan 68