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Georgia Tech Basketball: Jackets face tough challenge in Louisville

By Dylan Callaghan-Croley

MIAMI, FL - DECEMBER 01: Head coach Josh Pastner of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets reacts against the St. John's Red Storm during the HoopHall Miami Invitational at American Airlines Arena on December 1, 2018 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
MIAMI, FL - DECEMBER 01: Head coach Josh Pastner of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets reacts against the St. John's Red Storm during the HoopHall Miami Invitational at American Airlines Arena on December 1, 2018 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images) /
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The Georgia Tech men’s basketball team is set to take on one of the ACC’s best in the Louisville Cardinals on Wednesday night.

On Wednesday night, the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets will take on the No. 6 Louisville Cardinals at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky. The Cardinals enter Wednesday night’s game with a 15-3 record and 6-1 in ACC play.

The Cardinals over their last four games have rebounded nicely from back-to-back losses to Kentucky and Florida State at the end of December and early January. Since then, they’ve collected four-straight wins including a win over No.3 Duke last week.

The Yellow Jackets, on the other hand, are coming off a loss to Virginia on Saturday and are looking to get back towards .500 on the season. The Jackets are 8-10 on the season and 3-5 in ACC play. They’ve lost three of four in a tough stretch that has featured Duke, Boston College, Notre Dame, and Virginia. The good news perhaps for the Jackets is that following Wednesday’s game against Louisville, the schedule does get a bit lighter with just one ranked team left on the schedule in a rematch against Louisville on February 12.

Louisville this season has been rather strong on both sides of the ball. On offense, the Cardinals are averaging 74.9 points per game. However, despite averaging nearly 75 points per game, the Cardinals have just two players averaging over 10-points per game. Those two players are forward Jordan Nwora (19.6 ppg) and senior center Steven Enoch (10.7 ppg). That being said, as a team, the Cardinals have shot 46.2% from the field as a team this year  as well as 38.7% from three-point range.

The Cardinals are also a strong passing team on offense and will pass the ball around quite a bit looking for the right looks. So far this season, the Cardinals have recorded assists on 54% of their made field goals this season (14.6 apg).

Junior forward Jordan Nwora will be the player to watch the closest on offense Wednesday as the potential player of the year is putting together a tremendous season. Nwora is averaging 19.6 points and 7.4 rebounds per game. Nwora has led the Cardinals in scoring in 16 of their 18 games this season. He is coming off a tough game against Duke, scoring just six points but that is just the second game of the season that Nwora has been held under double-digit points.

Defensively, the Cardinals are keeping teams to just 62.2 points per game. That’s best for 39th in the country. They’re not the most consistent team defensively but overall, they’re a team that will give the Yellow Jackets a struggle.

For the Yellow Jackets, they’ll look to bounce back offensively after putting up just 58-points against Virginia. Jose Alvarado had another strong performance against Virginia scoring 20-points but the Jackets saw tough performances out of other main scoring options Michael Devoe and Moses Wright who scored six and seven points respectively. The Jackets defense that has been a staple of past Josh Pastner teams has struggled this season, allowing 67.7 points per game this season.

A win on Wednesday for the Yellow Jackets would undoubtedly be huge but it seems highly unlikely with ESPN’s FPI giving the Jackets just an 8.1% chance to walk out of Louisville with a victory. But perhaps the Jackets have a surprise up their sleeve for Wednesday and will pull off the upset. Either way, a strong performance on Wednesday could help the Jackets momentum wise heading into the rest of their schedule.

The Yellow Jackets and Cardinals will tip-off at 7:00 pm on Wednesday night. The Jackets will be looking for their first victory of the Josh Pastner era over the Cardinals as they enter Wednesday 0-3 under Pastner’s tutelage.