Louisville-Florida State preview

Louisville Cardinals (3-19, 1-10) vs. Florida State Seminoles (7-16, 5-7)

Game Time: 2 p.m.

Location: KFC Yum Center: Louisville, Ky.

Television: ESPN2

Announcers: Doug Sherman (play-by-play) and Jay Williams (analyst)

Favorite: Florida State by 5.5

Series: Louisville leads, 34-16

Last Meeting: Florida State won 75-53 on Dec. 10, 2022 in Tallahassee

Series History:

Statistics:

Relevant Videos:

About Florida State:

Perhaps the ACC’s most disappointing team, Florida State enters Saturday’s game against Louisville at 7-16 overall and 5-7 in league play. After a 1-9 start to the year, the Seminoles seemed to hit their stride for a bit once ACC play rolled around, but they will walk into the KFC Yum Center on Saturday losers of three straight.

Typically known for its monstrous size, this year’s Seminoles are more guard-driven. Junior Darin Green leads the team in scoring at 14.1 ppg, with former highly-touted recruit Matthew Cleveland (14.0 ppg) and former Houston transfer Caleb Mills (13.0 ppg) joining him as double figure scorers.

Florida State plays at a fairly brisk pace (94th fastest in the country), but doesn’t do anything particularly spectacular on the offensive end. They are connecting on just 34.7 percent of their three-point shots and only 48.7 percent of their shots from inside the arc. Unlike in past seasons, the Seminoles are also getting worked on the glass, where they are giving up offensive rebounds on 32.4 percent of their defensive possessions, a higher percentage than all but 46 teams in Division-I.

Despite having historically dominated this series, Louisville is currently riding a six-game losing streak against Florida State, and has dropped three straight to the Seminoles inside the Yum Center.

Notable:

—Florida State is riding a six-game winning streak over Louisville for the first time in the lengthy series between the two programs. Before this current run, the Seminoles had only once won back-to-back games over the Cardinals, and that happened all the way back in 1978.

—U of L’s longest winning streak over FSU is nine games, which lasted from 1978-1982.

—Louisville is looking to avoid being swept by Florida State for the third consecutive season.

—FSU has won its last four games over Louisville all by at least nine points, including by 22 back in December.

—Louisville has already lost eight games by 20 points or more this season, the 20-point losses in one season in the history of Cardinal basketball.

—Florida State is 8-4 against Louisville since the Cardinals joined the ACC in 2014-15.

—Louisville is 6-8 all-time in games against Florida State head coach Leonard Hamilton. The Cards are 4-8 against Hamilton at FSU, and went 2-0 against him during his time at Oklahoma State.

—Louisville is undefeated in the month of February in the Kenny Payne era.

—Louisville is 6-34 over its last 40 games dating back to last season.

—Louisville is 218-13 over the last 20 seasons and 15-1 over the last three when scoring 80 points or more. The Cards have eclipsed the 80-point mark just once this season.

—Louisville is 14-0 over the past 10 seasons when limiting opponents to no more than one three-point field goal.

—Since 2004, Louisville is 128-0 when leading by more than 10 points at halftime.

—Louisville has won 162 consecutive games when holding an opponent under 50 points.

—Louisville has won 157 consecutive games when scoring at least 85 points in regulation.

Ken Pomeroy Prediction: Florida State 74, Louisville 71