CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WDRB) – Coming off a dominant finish to the regular season, Louisville heads into the ACC Tournament riding a nine-game winning streak, with 19 wins in its past 20 games. But to keep their roll going, the No. 13-ranked Cardinals will have to face a rare kind of rematch.
For the first time since 1983, Louisville, the No. 2 seed in the tournament, will play the same team in consecutive games, meeting No. 7 seed Stanford in Thursday’s 7 p.m. ACC quarterfinal just days after dismantling the Cardinal 68-48 on Senior Day.
That win, which secured Louisville’s highest-ever seed in the ACC Tournament, came despite a 5-for-22 three-point shooting effort — tied for the team’s lowest three-point output of the season. A key factor? The absence of Reyne Smith, who ranks third nationally in made three-pointers. His status for Thursday remains uncertain, and first-year Louisville coach Pat Kelsey, named ACC Coach of the Year on Monday, hasn’t addressed the media since Saturday.
Stanford, however, has been talking about Louisville plenty.
Stanford coach Kyle Smith was asked about the matchup after his team’s 78-73 win over California.
“What have they won, 19 out of 20?,” Smith said. “They’re just playing really well. They’ve got, if not the best point guard in the country, he’s been phenomenal. You’re going to have to play well to get them. But I thought we did some good things defensively (in last week’s meeting). They’re just kind of relentless. It was Senior Night, and they were really good defensively. I’d like to say we had open shots that we missed, but there just wasn’t much breathing room there. So ,we’re going to have to look at the film and see if we can find a way They switched a lot of stuff, they pressured us, so we’ve got to find ways to crack that code.”
Smith was a name mentioned in connection with the Louisville job after Kenny Payne was dismissed following last season. And Smith said Wednesday that he was contacted.
“Ironically, as I told Pat, he’s doing a heck of a job, and he deserved (ACC Coach of the Year),” Smith said. “Louisville reached out to me during the last year and I was just like, “Seriously?” I said, like, ‘I love bourbon, I love thoroughbreds, I love basketball, not necessarily in that order.’ That was a text to them and I never heard back from them. But Stanford wanted me, and I just didn’t see (Louisville). But it’s a great job, and he’s a good fit there. I didn’t realize he’s from Cincinnati. He’s got a lot of energy, and I think some guys would construe that as being, like, a schtick. It’s not. You can tell he’s genuine. That’s who he is. You can’t fake that. He’s good for the league. Good to see Louisville good, but not that good. We’ve got to play them.”
Things have worked out fine for Smith in his first season at Stanford. Duke transfer Jaylen Blakes had 21 points against Cal, and big man Maxime Reynaud had 23 points and eight rebounds.
“I always thought of Stanford being the right fit for me,” Smith said. “. . . Just the comfort of living in the Bay Area, which is a second home to me. I’ve coached at Columbia. I like to work with the smart guys and I’m not intimidated by them too much. They’re all smarter than me.”
Louisville grabbed a 10-point lead early in its first meeting with Stanford, led by 15 at halftime, and after Stanford cut its deficit to eight in the second half, Louisville used a 9-1 run in the final 2:21 to pull away.
“They’re really good,” Blakes said. “Obviously you know that, but for us, we’re not just focused on what we did today. We have a goal in mind, and it’s not just to get one win, and for us, I think we have to respect the opponent, respect what they did. But obviously we didn’t have our best outing against them at their place, and we’re just going to try to improve and get recovered, as Max said, and focus on tomorrow.”
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