The Cincinnati Bearcats and the Louisville Cardinals are playing on Thursday night in an ESPN college basketball game presentation and the matchup will be streaming online from the WatchESPN website and has the number 12 team in the nation taking on the number 13 team in Cincy and the matchup will be from the KFC Yum! Center at 7 pm and is a big game for the American Athletic Conference.
The two teams are battling at the top of the conference right now and the Bearcats are in first place and Russ Smith has been leading the way for the Cardinals and now Louisville will try and get back into the top spot with a win against the Bearcats. Smith has been playing very well while leading the team in scoring with over 18 points per game and nearly five assists and now the team is looking to get back on track in the conference against the Bearcats and this comes after the team lost to Memphis but they have won four straight since then and are coming into the game after a win against South Florida in a massive blowout and the team scored nearly 40 points more than the Bulls and now they have the Bearcats and that is the only other ranked team besides Memphis that is ranked on the schedule.
The Bearcats come into the game 8-0 in the conference and 19-2 overall, while Louisville is 6-1 in the AAC and 17-3 overall and the three ranked teams in the conference are on top for the time being in the top three spots. Louisville started off the season strong before losing early to North Carolina and then the team went on a lengthy winning streak before falling to rival Kentucky and now they have a fairly easy stretch of schedule the rest of the season and that should put them in good position to repeat this year.
Check here for the Louisville and Cincinnati live coverage from the WatchESPN website.
The Cardinals have won four straight and they are starting to click on offense and senor Luke Hancock has been playing some of his best ball alongside Montrezl Harrell, who has four double-doubles over the past five games and according to the AP, both players have been in double digits in points in the last two wins and Rick Pitino will need more play like that for the Cardinals to repeat.
Connecticut and South Florida have been beat up this season and heading into the back stretch of the season the Cardinals are looking to get their role players more involved and it came after Smith added nine points, five assists and three steals in the game on Wednesday. Cincy comes into the game on a 12 game winning streak and with the cardinals undefeated in the last four, something will have to give on Thursday and the game will start up at 7 pm online from ESPN and the Bearcats come in scoring just 71 points per game, but the defense has been excellent and they are ranked in the top five in the nation and Louisville is 13th in scoring and 22nd in defense, making this a close matchup.