#49 R.P.I. Louisville @ #48 R.P.I. Virginia Tech:

Virginia Tech men’s basketball stays home for the middle game of a rarefied A.c.c. trinary home-stand to host the Louisville Cardinals on Saturday afternoon at 1pm on Columbia Broadcasting Systems.

The Hokies host 18 up and 9 down and off-court less than .5oo Louisville in a need game for at least one of these two squads— possibly -and some might have me say- this is (still) a need gamefor both teams. As both teams could write another line on their March Madness icon at the moment; albeit Louisville is certainly the needier resume` team here. As yes, the Cards are missing their rook {sic: card} of late when you look at their recent 2-5 dip alone. Nevertheless, and per basically always; there is more to this one than meets the Eye; and you wanna know who will win? Read on, to find, out!

Louisville (interim) Head Coach: David Christopher Padgett: age=32, 18–8 (.692) overall and this year at Louisville
$800,000.oo (with $200k in benchmark incentives)

6′11″, 245 lb. (interim) Head Coach who can still go out there and “do work” with his ballers and demonstrate and/or scrimmage; if need be. That would be the relatively unknown former Jayhawk and then Cardinal ex-baller now Coach David Padgett.

As a high school senior, baller Padgett was the top-rated center and considered the fourth-rated prospect overall in America by Inside Hoops. He picked up a Jr. World Championship gold-medal and then signed with the (soon) departing Roy Williams. David played a year at K.U. made a memorable game winning shot and took his game to Louisville and with the now ill fated coach Rick Pitino. One (God Bless) broken kneecap later, and two all-Big East selections and he had a fair to middling Cardinal career. Averaging 9.6 ppg and 5.2 rpg for his collegiate career; where he ranks 2nd all-time in Louisville FG percentage history dropping a cool 61.3% of his shoots for the Card’s.

Though undrafted by an N.B.A. team, Padgett was signed in July 2008 by the Miami Heat, and added to its summer league team. However, Padgett was waived by the Heat on October 26, 2008. After spending the 2008-09 season in Spain, Padgett was named to the Portland Trail Blazers 2009 summer league team. Although, Padgett was not invited to training camp, and proceeded to play the next year in Spain with U.B. La Palma in the Canary Islands.

Following his second season in Spain, Padgett unofficially retired and returned to Louisville as the team’s assistant S&C coach, working under his former head coach Rick Pitino. After spending the 2010–11 season in that position, he left to become a full-time assistant at IUPUI, serving in that role until IUPUI head coach Todd Howard was fired at the end of the 2013–14 season.

Padgett then returned to the Louisville program, and was initially hired in the 2014 off-season as assistant video coordinator. Shortly after he was hired at U of L, he was promoted to director of basketball operations. Padgett was promoted to an assistant coach position at Louisville, in March 2015. Padgett was named acting head coach at Louisville on September 29, 2017, amid FBI investigations of various basketball programs that ultimately led to the firings of both Pitino and Cardinal athletic director Tom Jurich.

Padgett’s basketball bloodlines run deep as his father played at the University of Nevada and his uncle played at New Mexico. His grandfather Jim played for Oregon State and his sister played for the University of San Diego.

Padgett.edu did graduate from Louisville and David and his wife, Megan, have two sons: Nolan and Gavin.

Louisville at a glance:

• 3rd in swats (6.5 bpg)!
• 18th in FG percentage D (40.4% allowed)!
• 42nd in swipes (7.6 spg).
• 53rd in 3-point percentage D (32.6% allowed).
• 56th in defensive rebounding (27.11 d-rpg).
• 84th in scoring O (77.3 ppg).

Cardinals Returning Starters=4

Louisville Strengths:

• This is a very deep hoops squad folks, that was tabbed A.c.c. 2nd or 3rd by all the preview magazines.
• Second year 6′7″, 200 lb. Sudan, Africa then by way of Melbourne Australia native Deng Adel is the Louisville alpha in scoring at 15.5 ppg. He is a two time all-A.c..c. Academic Men’s Basketball team selection; three cheers for that. Deng grabs you 5.1 rpg with 2.8 apg on 46% shooting overall and 77% from the FT-line. His 34% metric from deep could use a little polish though his history of (left) knee sprains may have held him back here a scosche. Deng was a soccer and T&F star in Australia so you know his footwork and agility are not wanting. He did have a VT.hoops schoolie offer and Deng has a whopping 7′ wingspan; wow! Lindy’s has Deng as 1st-string pre-season all-A.c.c. Deng has something of a rep’ for being an inconsistent though multi level scorer. As his offensive game has short, mid and long range capability alike. As he did improve all of last year and wound up bearishly vetting his N.B.A. stock accordingly. Seems to have some spring to his game and I’d be hesitant to type he has reached his ceiling yet. As Deng is prolly a pro’ only question is where? His bio reads: “What impresses him the most about Coach Pitino: his honesty, will to win and emphasis on the defensive end.” Dang. Maybe the new director of basketball operations could do Deng a favor and backspace that “bleep” right on out! (UPDATE: overall play is ↑ since we last saw Adel; in particular 3-pont shooting; although Deng is dinged up (ankle) having missed a couple games last week)
• Raymond Spalding and his 6′10″ and 215 lbs. lead Louisville in rebounding at 9 rpg and in swipes at 1.6 spg; and to be quite frank, I do not recall the last time I saw someone leading their squad in each of those; at the very same time. As this is one handsy or active post player this Mr. Spaulding down low. No word yet on any relation to Judge Smails. Spaulding was said to be a breakout modern P/F with pretty high localized Louisville native expectations. Spaulding has an absurd 7′7″ wingspan and is third in scoring at 11.9 ppg. With a steady looking 1.8 bpg on 54% overall. He is an A.A.U. national champion and yet you kinda wonder if this third year baller could be doing a bit more? As the athletics and the metrics are all there, in spades in point of fact. (UPDATE: shooting better so we’ll call Spalding ↑ since last time; tho’ spies hint that Spalding is also nursing a lame ankle to boot; although he has shot 50% or better from the field in nine straight contests)
• One #14 and senior year Anas Mahmoud is a big ole 7′, 215 lb. total rejection or shot-blocking machine at a whopping 3.1 bpg! As this Cairo, Egypt imported baller could start his countries very own S.W.A.T. squad when he gets back. True, Anas prolly does need to mix in a steak and a protein shake before his return; although this is one vertical send-back type baller. He too is an all-A.c.c. Academic Men’s Basketball team selection; UL.edu props insert (____) here; check. Anas -God Bless- does have a history of concussions and right ankle sprains; though he does speak four languages: English, Arabic, French and German. 57% shooting, 7.7 ppg and 5.5 rpg Anas was no.99 in the ESPN recruiting rankings; he won the scholastic African continental basketball championship and he is a rarefied college hoops engineering major. Good on him! (UPDATE: pretty well, Swiss, ⇔ or neutral in the last few weeks)
  

  

• Pt.Guard Quentin Snider is a 6′2″, 180 lb. homegrown Louisville area kid who elected to stay home for college. Right now he nets you a second best 11.9 ppg on a decent looking 39% from range. Q’ drops a team leading 4 apg and collects 2.8 rpg in his spare time. The book on Snider says that he’s an energizer bunny high voltage type player, and a well seasoned (83 game starter) senior type leader and team captain for it. Snider has a very solid looking 2.77 assist to turnover ratio, so his handles are legit; very. Snider was honored as Kentucky’s Mr. Basketball and was ranked 33rd nationally by Rivals.com. Don’t know if he’s quite exceeded all of that although I do know he’s had a solid career and we could all do worse. (UPDATE: ↓ just a bit in the meantime)

Louisville Weaknesses:

• The book says Louisville lacks a pure go to scorer | when, needed.
• Brian Bowen II’s off-court ills are nobodies strength; as the 6′7″, 190 lb. Saginaw, Michigan native has been kicked to the bluegrass curb for see: below. Bowen was the final and rather latent ***** or 5-star signee in his recruiting class nationally and his Louisville signature was a surprise to many recruiting services. Bowen II is said to be a full 5-position player same as Magic Johnson. I personally don’t know if all of this is code for this/that, although Benji Button and I both know this is one ¢urious tale… (UPDATE: suspended for remainder of the season).
• and oh yes… there is this little matter of some kinda G-man agency or Federal Bureau of something’s investigation into bribery or something like that. That may have led to the dismissal of some coach by the name of: Pitino or something like that…
• (as I started reading up on this Louisville quagmire… the more and more I did not wanna cover this… nevertheless, suffice it to say Louisville is reeling from these off-court scandalizing matters; possibly, severely)
• There are whisperers that say that this Louisville O is 2/3 Zone phobic.

Card’s Bench: (depth=5+)

Technically speaking, there are no less than six different pine squad guys here who average from 7.7 ppg down to 2.9 ppg. There may not be a star here; though the Cardinal bench donates ~30 combined ppg and nearly 15 aggregate boards to your relief fund cause.

6′, 170 lb. Soph. Ryan McMahon is a shooting specialist as a substitute One. 6.5 ppg at 39% from beyond the arc is no bad thing. Ryan was the 2015 somewhat overlooked AAA Florida Player of the Year. With McMahon said to be a Baltic Avenue man’s Mark Price lyte. (UPDATE: almost exactly level or ⇔ overall)

Dwayne Sutton goes 6′5″ and 205 lbs. as a undersized P/F-Wing. He of the double walk-on, once transferred (U.N.C.-Asheville) finally earned a U of L schollie last semester fame baller. Great on him as every team needs an overachieving worker-bee feel-good story such as Dwayne who relentlessly drones on and on and on. Sutton spearheads the L’ville bench in caroms with 3.5 rpg, on 3.8 ppg and a not half-bad 33% from range. As he did average 13 ppg and 6 rpg as a walk-on rookie at U.N.C.-Asheville; where he did most of his damage close to the rim. And yes, he three is a Louisville homeboy. (UPDATE: ↓ or pretty well down, in particular down from range)

Illation, conclusion(s) and OPT digits:

Number of Cards who could start @Tech=3 or 4'ish.

the takeaway:
The takeaway here is… pretty dang happy to see Buzz and Co. beat another nationally ranked team on Wednesday night in what may not have been the prettiest win. As to me, winning is the same as cars… if it starts? It’s a keeper— as you do not apologize for success; and you do not give wins back.

Upsetting #15 Clemson is a NC2A resume` building keeper as you’d have to think we/Virginia Tech are pretty dang close to punching our big dance ticket.

Did enjoy the use of bench players here to create energy spacing; that’s how you crash the boards and any given Chi campus party. Though still yet, would like to see more from Walker and/or Hill. As they could be a 1-man offensive X-factor in any increasing competition threshold game from here on out.

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the skinny…

Tech is .8oo as a host and Louisville is .375 as a visitor.

Seasonally we see that Tech is +3% from the floor, 1% better from behind the arc and rebounding is nearly awash. The Home/Away splits say that the Gobblers are +8% overall and +5% from deep with a stunning +6 board edge on the glass. The most recent five game trends show us that Tech is +3% from the floor (all on D), +4% from distance (again, all on D), and almost –1 rebound shy of the Cardinals.

Our A.c.c. Margin is slowly improving, now paid off down to a –15 point deficit whereas the Cardinals are trading at a still fairly lucrative +46 price point. However, they were recently +89 points, even with the 1-5 discounting spell prior to the hard looking U.n.c. and Duke L’s. What this means is… when these Cardinals get it going these Cardinals are a damn dawgg as they can and will beat the breaks off of people. Caveat is… they have five A.c.c. L’s by two shots or less.

Louisville is 2% better on FTA’s overall although 6% better of late.

the call…
…in updating the above statistical metrics, most everything has slipped a bit since we squared off vs. Louisville last. Which leaves me wondering just how many more games David Padgett has as (interim) head coach? Then we see that the Kansas City suits at the NCAA H.Q., decided to strip the Louisville program of the 2013 national title and handed down multiple other punishments.

To put it another way, the Cards have been shuffled by a mere two W’s since January and only three W’s in their last nine overall— and all three were vs. the bottom-3 in the A.c.c.! Plus their highly ugly reputational scandalized off-court black-eye.

Or in other words, has it already been tacitly decided to move in a different direction; or a clearinghouse direction if you will? As other that steals, Louisville has not bettered itself no matter where I looked. That seem like a duck with a fowl wing to anyone else?

As this contemporary Cardinal hardwood team does not anxietize me as much as their historical surname connotes; or as much as the once 1,000% polyester threads of coach Denny Crum once did. Though I, tangent…

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And yet that A.c.c. Margin speaks with sum measure of assiduity, as it is very difficult -if not farcical- to argue that Virginia Tech is the better Atlantic Coast team here. Or to put it a different way… perhaps Louisville is due to play a good game here? They are pace friendly, and this one is at home —still yet, I just do not have the best feel for this finessing or finnicky Buzz bunch. S (hooters) happen;  or sometimes they, don’t— as Virginia Tech just shot a season-low 34.5% against Clemson.

I am thinking they happen here; however I am also thinking that outta at least five more games to play there is at least one game left to play where they… won’t.

Nonetheless, this one is at home, L’ville is dinged, I’ma ridding with dat.

(59% confidence interval)
Virginia Tech=76, Louisville=73

“LETS GO!”

“Hokies!”

 bourbonstreet**