March Madness – (8) N.C. State vs. (4) Louisville

(8) N.C. State Wolfpack vs. (4) Louisville Cardinals (-3, 130 o/u)

After upsetting No. 1 Villanova on the weekend, the No. 8 N.C. State Wolfpack (22-13, 10-8 ACC) are garnering a lot of attention. This Friday, the squad will face one of the most successful coaches in NCAA history when they meet Rick Pitino the No. 4 Louisville Cardinals (26-8, 12-6 ACC) at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse (7:37 PM Eastern).

After squeaking past the No. 9 LSU Tigers in the Round of 64 (66-65), the Wolfpack used 17 points from Trevor Lacey and 13 from Cat Barber to shock Villanova, 71-68.

“We came out today with the feeling that everybody expected us to lose to a 1-seed, but we believe in ourselves and that we’re good enough to beat anybody in the country, and we went down and did it,” said Beejay Anya, who had the game-winning bucket in the opener against LSU.

Rebounding was key for N.C. State. They were +13 on the boards against the Wildcats and rarely let their cold-shooting opponent have a second look at the basket.

On Friday, however, the Wolfpack will face a Louisville team that has been strong on the glass all year; the Cardinals sit 22nd in the nation, averaging 38.2 RPG.

Pitino’s Cardinals got to the Sweet 16 by eking out a Round of 64 win over the UC Irvine Anteaters (57-55), and then overwhelming the smaller Norther Iowa Panthers (66-53). Sophomore guard Terry Rozier came up clutch in the latter game, scoring 25 points and adding seven assists.

Strong guard play isn’t a given for Louisville on any given night. In February, the team dismissed starting PG Chris Jones, and is now relying on freshman Quentin Snider to run the point. But on Sunday the team, and the back court in particular, looked the best it has since Jones was dismissed.

“We had to rally around it,” said Pitino. “We have a short bench. But these guys don’t take a play off, and that’s unusual in this world.”

The Cardinals are listed as three-point favorites at the moment, and the game total is at 130 points.  This will be the second meeting of the season between the teams; the Wolfpack shocked then-No. 9 Louisville in Kentucky (74-65) on Feb. 14, more than covering as 10.5-point dogs.

That said, Louisville has managed at least one win against all the teams it’s faced multiple times this year (North Carolina, Virginia, Pitt, and Miami).

(Photo credit: Bradjward (flickr) [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode]. Photo has been cropped.)