Louisville vs NC State odds, prediction, pick for UofL basketball game

Louisville vs NC State odds, prediction, pick for UofL basketball game

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  • Louisville basketball hosts N.C. State at 7 p.m. Monday in a Quad 1 game at the KFC Yum! Center.
  • Pat Kelsey’s 23rd-ranked Cardinals have won three in a row, while Will Wade’s Wolfpack have racked up six straight victories.
  • Who has the edge in this ACC showdown? Here’s our prediction.

For better or worse, we’re going learn a lot about Louisville basketball today.

Pat Kelsey‘s No. 23 Cardinals (17-6, 7-4 ACC) will put their three-game winning streak to the test in a Quad 1 tilt against red-hot N.C. State, winners of six in a row, at the KFC Yum! Center. It’s a white-out.

UofL is coming off an 88-80 win at Wake Forest over the weekend. It led by as many as 15 points during the second half but allowed the Demon Deacons to draw level with 4:44 remaining in regulation before holding them scoreless the rest of the way.

“Playing desperate,” Khani Rooths said to describe Louisville’s defensive stand down the stretch. “We knew what we needed to do to win. We got stops; and we just had to finish it with the boards.”

N.C. State will be the best test of the Cards’ ceiling since their last appearance on Big Monday, which ended in the most lopsided loss of Kelsey’s tenure — 83-52 at then-No. 4 Duke. Led by first-year coach Will Wade, the Wolfpack improved to 11-2 since Dec. 17 and 24th on KenPom.com‘s adjusted efficiency rankings with an 82-73 win against Virginia Tech over the weekend.

Preseason ACC Player of the Year Darrion Williams leads N.C. State in scoring with 14.7 points on 42.5% shooting (41.7% from 3-point range) to go along with 5.3 rebounds, three assists and a steal per game. Point guard Quadir Copeland, meanwhile, has the ACC’s second-best assist rate (44.8%, seven per game) in addition to averaging 14 points on 52.9% shooting and 1.9 steals. The big man to watch: Ven-Allen Lubin, who leads the Wolfpack with seven rebounds per game and is fourth in scoring (13.3).

Here’s what you need to know to follow today’s game from home — then a score prediction:

UofL and N.C. State are scheduled to tip off at 7 p.m. today inside the Yum! Center.

The game between the Cards and the Wolfpack will air on ESPN, which is channel 602 on AT&T U-Verse; channel 206 on DirecTV; channel 140 on Dish; and channel 506 on Spectrum.

Dave O’Brien (play-by-play), Jay Williams (analyst) and Molly McGrath (sideline) will be on the call.

If you subscribe to a cable package, you’ll be able to livestream the game via ESPN.com and the ESPN app. If you don’t have cable, you can livestream the game via Fubo, which offers a free trial here.

Louisville is a 6⅟₂-point favorite (-110) on DraftKings, which set the over/under at 162⅟₂ points (-110). 

No. 23 Louisville 79, N.C. State 73: The Cards’ frontcourt has been playing better of late, and I think Ryan Conwell and Mikel Brown Jr. are due for a big scoring night — although the Wolfpack’s backcourt is going to be a problem on both ends of the court. After siding against Kelsey’s team the past few times I’ve done these predictions for big games, I think tonight’s the night they get it done. Because they’ve never needed it more than they do now.

Reach Louisville men’s basketball reporter Brooks Holton at bholton@gannett.com and follow him on X at @brooksHolton.



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