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Texas Tech basketball: What Red Raider fans need to know about Louisville

By Matthew Conner

DES MOINES, IOWA - MARCH 21: Head coach Chris Mack of the Louisville Cardinals looks on during their game in the First Round of the NCAA Basketball Tournament against the Minnesota Golden Gophers at Wells Fargo Arena on March 21, 2019 in Des Moines, Iowa. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
DES MOINES, IOWA - MARCH 21: Head coach Chris Mack of the Louisville Cardinals looks on during their game in the First Round of the NCAA Basketball Tournament against the Minnesota Golden Gophers at Wells Fargo Arena on March 21, 2019 in Des Moines, Iowa. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /
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LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY – DECEMBER 06: The Louisville Cardinals bench  (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY – DECEMBER 06: The Louisville Cardinals bench  (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /

Tonight, the Texas Tech basketball team faces No.1 Louisville out of the ACC so here’s a primer about the Cardinals to get Red Raider fans ready for this huge game.

It doesn’t get any bigger than playing the No. 1 team in the nation…unless you are doing so in a nationally televised game on ESPN…in Madison Square Garden.  Such is the opportunity before the Texas Tech basketball team tonight.

Opportunity is the correct word to use here because that’s what this game is.  For the first time all season, the Red Raiders will enter a contest as the decided underdogs and they will finally be back to their familiar place as the upset-minded Davids trying to take down mighty Goliath.

It’s been a disappointing two-weeks for the Red Raiders, who enter having lost three-straight games to fall out of the top 25.  Thus, many around the nation are wondering if the Red Raiders are a program destined to fall back to earth after back-to-back years of unprecedented success.

Thus the opportunity.  Taking down No. 1 in the most high-profile of settings would vault Chris Beard’s team back into the national consciousness and provide this young squad with some much-needed confidence.

But it will be far from easy.  The Cardinals enter this game 9-0 on the year having already claimed wins over Miami, No. 4 Michigan, and Pitt.

Chris Mack’s team comes in averaging 77.1 points per game (1.9 less than Tech) while allowing just 57.6 (7.5 fewer than the Red Raiders).  Only twice this year have they allowed a team to score 70 points, something that likely worries Red Raider fans, especially if Jahmi’us Ramsey is unable to play for the third-straight game.

It has been disappointing to see the freshman who led the Big 12 in scoring prior to his injury miss the last 2-and-a-half games because it has prevented us from seeing what this version of the Red Raiders looks like against Power 5 competition.  That’s another reason that it would be beneficial for the former 5-start recruit to get back on the floor tonight.  This will be the final test against a major conference opponent until the start of Big 12 play and such experience would be invaluable for Ramsey as well as his team as it would give Tech a chance to find out what it is like to go through a real test with its full roster available (with the exception of freshman forward Tyreek Smith).

"“More important than ranked one or ranked ten is just that we’re playing a team that’s very similar to teams we’re gonna have to play in league play…” Beard said."

But Louisville isn’t just as good as some middling Big 12 team like TCU or Oklahoma.  They are arguably the best team the Red Raiders will face in the regular season.

So to get prepared for this monumental opportunity for the Red Raiders, let’s take a closer look at what makes Louisville so good.  Here are three things to know about the Cardinals.

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