Next Syracuse basketball opponent is struggling like it’s nobody’s business

Syracuse basketball enters its Atlantic Coast Conference clash with Louisville in Central New York on Saturday afternoon having won two contests in a row, including a road triumph at N.C. State earlier this week.

The Orange offense, to put it mildly, is really clicking, as the ‘Cuse (11-11, 5-6) is averaging more than 90 points per game over its last two league encounters.

On the flip side, the team’s next foe, the Cardinals, is having a really tough time of late. Louisville (11-11, 5-7) recently parted ways with its head coach, Chris Mack, and the Cardinals have fallen seven times in their eight most-recent battles.

Drilling down even further, Louisville is on a four-affair losing streak, with setbacks to North Carolina, Duke, Virginia and Notre Dame. Three of those losses came at home, by the way.

Syracuse basketball has a golden chance to continue its winning ways.

While it’s true that the Orange is only 10-19 all-time versus Louisville, a lot of those losses came while Rick Pitino was at the helm for the Cardinals. These days, Louisville is in a much different place.

In taking a look at the Cardinals’ schedule to date in the 2021-22 campaign, they do have a handful of bad, head-scratching losses. Conversely, Louisville does have solid victories over both Maryland and Wake Forest.

The Cardinals have an edge over Syracuse basketball on defense, while the Orange unsurprisingly scores more points per game than Louisville does.

On the offensive end of the floor, the Cardinals spread their scoring around much more than the ‘Cuse, a team that relies almost exclusively on its five starters for points. The Louisville roster includes 10 players who average at least 4.8 points per meeting.

An Orange zone defense that has had its share of woes in 2021-22 will square off with a Cardinals offense that connects on just 42.1 percent from the field, 68.5 percent from the charity stripe, and 32.9 percent from beyond the arc.

Louisville commits 12.4 turnovers per game, and the Cardinals hold a slight advantage against Syracuse basketball in rebounding. The ‘Cuse, meanwhile, has edges in assists, blocks and steals.

So far in 2021-22, Louisville is 2-5 in true road games, while the Orange is 8-3 at the Carrier Dome. At the time of this writing, the Cardinals were No. 121 in the NET ratings and No. 122 via KenPom.

Despite having the same overall records so far in the present term, Syracuse basketball was No. 93 in the NET and No. 77 at KenPom, including a top-15 ranking in adjusted offensive efficiency.