ACC tournament first round preview: Louisville vs. Boston College

15) Louisville Cardinals (4-27, 2-18) vs. 10) Boston College Eagles (15-16, 9-11)

ACC Tournament First Round

Game Time: (approximately) 4:30 p.m.

Location: Greensboro Coliseum: Greensboro, N.C.

Television: ACC Network

Announcers: Wes Durham (play-by-play) and Jordan Cornette (analyst)

Favorite: Boston College by 6

Series: Louisville leads, 10-5

Last Meeting: Boston College won 75-65 on Jan. 25 in Chestnut Hill

Series History:

Possible Starting Lineups:

Louisville

• G El Ellis (6-3, 180, Sr.)
• G/F Mike James (6-5, 215, R-Fr.)
• F J.J. Traynor (6-8, 190, Jr.)
• F Jae’Lyn Withers (6-9, 220, R-Jr.)
• F Brandon Huntley-Hatfield (6-10, 250, So.)

Boston College

• G Makai Ashton-Langford (6-3, 180, Gr.)
• G Jaeden Zackery (6-2, 215, So.)
• G DeMarr Langford (6-5, 220, Jr.)
• F CJ Penha Jr. (6’7, 230, Sr.)
• F Quinten Post (7-10, 250, Sr.)

Statistics:

Relevant Videos:

About Boston College:

After a fairly successful 13-20 debut a year ago, second-year head coach Earl Grant is continuing the large task of attempting to build Boston College men’s basketball back into a contender in the ACC. He returned four starters from that 2021-22 squad and wound up nearly finishing with a .500 record in conference play.

While Eagle fans have been mostly pleased with the year two progress, it would be hard to view the season as a clearcut success if BC falls to lowly Louisville in its lone ACC tournament performance.

The big question for Boston College going into Tuesday is the status of senior big man Quinten Post. Named the ACC’s Most Improved Player earlier this week, Post torched Louisville with 22 points in the January meeting between these two teams. The 7-footer from Amsterdam missed the first 13 games of this season because of a foot injury, and appeared to suffer an ankle injury early on in Saturday’s regular season finale against Georgia Tech. With the big man only playing three minutes, the Eagles fell at home to the Yellow Jackets, 73-65.

“A sprained ankle, nothing more than that,” Grant told reporters of Post’s injury on Monday. “It’s day to day. We saw him yesterday, he was moving around better. We’ll work with him tonight, and we’ll have a better, feel, better understanding of where he is.”

With Post healthy this season, BC is averaging 67.9 points (+3.6 ppg), is connecting on 45.3% of its field goals (+9.7% increase), 36.5% from beyond the arc (+37.2% increase), and 77.0% from the FT line (+14.8% increase). Obviously, his status on Tuesday will go a long towards determining which team is able to keep its season alive for at least another day.

Outside of Post, the Eagles’ top performer remains senior guard Makai Ashton-Langford, who has been playing college basketball since the David Padgett season of 2017-18. Langford is a crafty scorer and passer, who does his best work inside of the three-point line. He’s also one of the league’s most dangerous defenders, averaging better than a steal and a half per game in each of the last three seasons.

Boston College has been a pretty consistently bad shooting team all season long, ranking 290th in three-point percentage (32.0) and 248th from inside the arc (48.8 percent). The Eagles rank just 249th in the country in adjusted offensive efficiency, worse than every team in the ACC outside of Georgia Tech and Louisville.

This is a team that wants to win with defense, and that wants to play a subdued, halfcourt game for the most part. If Post is healthy, they’ll try and force the Cards to beat them from the outside, and they’ll also hope that U of L will continue its year-long trend of giving away possessions and cheap points via careless turnovers.

Notable:

—Louisville is 3-6 all-time in the ACC tournament, and has never won multiple games in the same tournament or advanced past the tournament’s quarterfinal round.

—The Cards are 1-0 all-time in ACC tournament first round games, knocking off Georgia Tech last season.

—Since joining Conference USA in 1995-96, Louisville is 17-8 in its first conference tournament game across C-USA, the Big East, the American and the ACC. The Cardinals are 5-2 in first-round conference tournament games since 1996.

—Louisville is 8-2 against Boston College in ACC play. The two teams have never met in the ACC tournament.

—Boston College is 5-8 all-time at the Greensboro Coliseum

—Louisville has made it to at least the quarterfinals in nine of the last 11 conference tournaments it has participated in. The Cards were set to play Syracuse in the quarterfinals of the 2020 ACC tournament on the day the event was canceled.

—Boston College is 4-7 all-time and 1-1 in ACC Tournament games played on March 7.

—In college basketball history, a team has never lost its first conference tournament game and gone on to win the NCAA tournament.

—Louisville has won 13 of its last 19 conference tournament games and has won four of the last 12 conference tournaments it has competed in.

—Boston College’s Makai Ashton-Langford and Jaeden Zackery are the only duo in the ACC to average better than 1.40 steals per game.

—Louisville is 0-2 in ACC tournament games played in Greensboro.

—Louisville’s 27 losses this season have already broken the school record for most losses in a season. The previous high was 20 in 1997-98.

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

—Louisville has lost four games by 1-point this season. That’s the most in U of L history and tied for the most ever by an ACC team. The Cardinals are 0-6 in one possession games.

—Louisville is 219-14 over the last 20 seasons and 16-2 over the last three when scoring 80 points or more. The Cards have eclipsed the 80-point mark just three times 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.

Ken Pomeroy Prediction: Boston College 72, Louisville 66