Louisville gets rematch with No. 1 Virginia (Mar 07, 2018)
After earning the No. 1 seed and a double-bye in this week's ACC Tournament in Brooklyn, top-ranked Virginia could do nothing but watch, and wait to see who their opponent would be, come Thursday.
That opponent will be Louisville.
The ninth-seeded Cardinals, who notched a much-needed win over No. 8 seed Florida State on Wednesday, will get a rematch with the Cavaliers one week after blowing a 13-point second-half lead against Virginia in a heartbreaking 67-66 loss.
"We didn't say, 'Oh, we have to beat Florida State so we can play Virginia'", Louisville interim coach David Padgett said after the win.
Looking ahead or not, the Cardinals (20-12) bolstered their NCAA Tournament resume with the win over the Seminoles and will have the chance to firmly set themselves in the field of 68 with a win over Virginia (28-2).
The Cavaliers last played on Saturday where they knocked off Notre Dame 62-57 in their regular-season finale and will open Thursday's quarterfinal session against a Louisville team that they have gone 7-1 against since the Cardinals joined the ACC.
This will be the first meeting between the two schools in the ACC Tournament.
"I learned a lot (last season) about how the intensity picks up in the postseason," Virginia sophomore guard Kyle Guy said. "Don't get me wrong, every game is a grind but there's just another feel to it when we get to the ACC and NCAA tournaments."
Guy is Virginia's leading scorer this season, averaging a modest 13.9 points per game, which was good enough to earn him first team All-ACC honors. He is coming off an MCL sprain that limited him in Saturday's win over the Fighting Irish, but should be good to go come Thursday.
"Thankfully, it's just a sprain," Guy said. "It hurts like hell, but I should be good to go on Thursday."
A win would advance Virginia into the semifinals for the fourth time in five years and give the Cavaliers at least one win in the ACC Tournament for the fifth straight season, tying a program record.
Louisville put four players in double figures in its win over Florida State, led by Quentin Snider, who put in 19 points, and Ray Spalding, who added 18.
"We are calling it our comeback game," Snider said about the pending matchup with Virginia. "We played well today and we are going to have to come out tomorrow and do the same thing."
After scoring 82 points against the Seminoles, Louisville will face a Virginia team that they have failed to score 60 points against in six of their eight meetings with as ACC opponents.
"Virginia is going to be ready for us as they have been all year," Padgett said. "We just have to come out and leave it all on the court."
The winner of Thursday's opening game advances to Friday's semifinals and will then face the winner of No. 4 Clemson and No. 12 Boston College.
