Louisville vs. Miami (Ohio) preview: Cardinals play final non-conference home game

Louisville Cardinals (10-1, 2-0) vs. Miami (Ohio) Redhawks (5-5)

Game Time: 8:30 p.m.

Location: KFC Yum Center: Louisville, Ky.

Television: ACC Network

Announcers: Steve Schlanger (play-by-play) and Debbie Antonelli (analyst)

Officials: Jamie Luckie, Tony Henderson, Brent Hampton

Favorite: Louisville by 23.5

Series: Louisville leads 4-0

Last Meeting: Louisville won 80-39 on Nov. 18, 2012 in Louisville

Series History:

Probable Starting Lineups:

Statistics:

Miami’s Season to Date:

Relevant Videos:

About Miami (Ohio):

Louisville wraps up the home portion of its non-conference slate Wednesday night against a 5-5 Miami University squad that is currently ranked 224th in the country on Ken Pom.

The Redhawks, who have been besieged by injuries off and on since the start of their campaign, have been a fairly solid offensive team through 10 games. They take care of the ball, they shoot it fairly well from beyond the arc (32.9 percent) and much better inside it (51.1 percent), and they’ll walk into the KFC Yum Center Wednesday night averaging a very respectable 75.8 points per game.

Miami is led in scoring by junior guard Nike Sibande (14.9 ppg), who suffered an injury on the first play of the Redhawks’ 79-67 win over Mississippi Valley State on Sunday. He sat out the rest of that game and is listed as questionable for Wednesday night’s tilt. He’s scored in double figures in all but one of Miami’s games this season, including a 28-point effort 11 days ago against Evansville.

Forward Dalonte Brown is the team’s other double figure scorer and top frontcourt performer. The 6’7 junior leads the team in rebounding at 7.0 rpg to go along with his 13.3 ppg. Though he’s the second tallest starter on the team, Brown does the bulk of his scoring damage on the perimeter. He’s knocked down at least one three in every game this season, and is shooting a career-best 41.0 percent from beyond the arc for the season. He doesn’t get to the line as much as head coach Jack Owens would like, but he’s an 80.6 percent shooter from the charity stripe when he does.

Bowling Green Warren Central product Bam Bowman is Miami’s most physically imposing inside presence at 6’8, 273-pounds. He doesn’t rebound as well as he should for someone his size, but he’s a capable and versatile scorer from a variety of spots on the floor. He missed three games earlier this season because of injury, but enters the U of L game playing his best basketball of the year. In the win over MVSU, Bowman netted a game-high 20 points and also snagged eight rebounds. He’ll take the outside shot, which should make him an interesting matchup for Steven Enoch and Malik Williams.

Like Eastern Kentucky, Miami is a deep team with a head coach who likes to utilize said depth. Eleven Redhawks are averaging 12 minutes per game or more, a fact which injuries also have something to do with. Even so, expect Coles to run nine or ten guys at Louisville Wednesday night, and not run with anyone but Sibande (if he’s healthy) and maybe Brown for 30 minutes or more.

Where Miami has really struggled this season has been on the defensive end. The Redhawks rank 308th in adjusted defensive efficiency, and have allowed seven of their 10 opponents to score above their season average. They don’t force turnovers, their perimeter defense numbers are aided slightly by the fact that they haven’t played many good shooting teams, and they have been destroyed by just about everyone inside.

This is another game where Louisville, so long as its fully focused and engaged, should shoot a high percentage and has the potential to put up a another large number on the scoreboard.

Notable:

—This will be Louisville’s final home non-conference game of 2019-20. The Cards have won 80 of their last 84 non-conference games at the KFC Yum Center, a mark which spans over the last nine seasons.

—Louisville is off to a 10-1 start through 11 games for the eighth time in the last 10 years.

—Miami has not defeated a ranked opponent since 2001 and hasn’t defeated a top 10 opponent since 2000. The Redhawks have never beaten a team ranked better than No. 6.

—Jordan Nwora’s 234 points scored this year are the most by a Louisville player through 11 games over the last 20 seasons. Nwora leads the ACC in scoring (21.3 ppg) and ranks 16th in the nation.

—Nwora needs 30 points to become the 69th 1,000-point scorer in Louisville history.

—Louisville has won 17 of its last 18 games played immediately before Christmas, including the last 10 straight.

—Louisville ranks seventh in the nation in field goal percentage defense (.358) and 16th in field goal percentage (.494).

—Miami is 23-28 all-time against current members of the ACC, a mark that is bettered by the Redhawks’ 10-3 overall record against Pittsburgh.

—Louisville is 22-7 all-time in games played on Dec. 18.

—Louisville has a 27-5 overall record against current members of the Mid-American Conference.

—Louisville has a 45-10 record during the month of December over the last seven years.

—The last time Miami played a game in which it didn’t have at least one double figure scorer was its 80-39 loss at Louisville in 2012.

—Louisville has an 88-6 record against non-conference opponents in the KFC Yum Center. The Cardinals have won 44 of their last 47 home games against non-conference foes.

—Louisville has won 152 consecutive games when scoring at least 85 points in regulation.

—Louisville is one of just four schools which have won 20 or more games on the court in each of the last 18 seasons (also Kansas, Duke and Gonzaga).

Ken Pomeroy Prediction: Louisville 82, Miami (Ohio) 57