The Kentucky Wildcats and Louisville Cardinals Sweet 16 NCAA Tournament college basketball game starts up on TV on Friday at 9:45 pm ET on CBS and it comes as one of the most anticipated games of the tourney with rival coaches John Calipari and Rick Pitino facing off as the two in-state rivals prepare for a chance to get to the Elite Eight.
Kentucky comes into the game after playing one of the best tournament matchups of the year so far after winning by two against Wichita State and the Shockers were the first number one seed to get eliminated this year. Kentucky came into the season as the number one preseason team before falling out of the rankings and now they can make up for that by continuing their run in the tournament after the win over the Shockers. The team got 10 rebounds and six assists from Julius Randle and Wichita State could not mount a comeback at the end to get the win and now their undefeated season is over ion the very tough Midwest region.
Louisville comes into the game as a four seed in the tournament and many felt that was disrespectful for a national championship winning team and a conference winning team and now they will try and emerge as a regional finalist against their in-state rivals. The team won over Saint Louis and Manhattan and now they have the chance to knock off the Wildcats and they are 31-5 on the season, while Kentucky comes in at 26-10. The two offenses are evenly matched and the Cardinals come in scoring over 80 points per game this season, ranking eighth in the nation. The team is 14th in points against with just 60 per game and they will have their hands full with the athletic front line of Kentucky.
The Wildcats are averaging over 75 points per game and they will be a tough team to handle all around and it will be youth against experience in this game and it could end up being one of the highest scoring of the tournament. The Cardinals are averaging 10 steals per game to rank second in the nation and they have now won seven games in a row heading into this matchup as they try to defend their national title from last season.
The games on Thursday start the Sweet 16 and it has Stanford and Dayton kicking things off before Baylor and Wisconsin play. The UCLA and Florida matchup should be a great one, along with Arizona and San Diego State and those four games come before Kentucky and Louisville play on Friday. Michigan and Tennessee play on Friday to start off with UConn and Iowa State next and then the Wildcats and Cardinals play ahead of Michigan State and Virginia in another four and one matchup.
Check here for the Kentucky and Louisville schedule for the NCAA tournament and more on the Sweet 16 from ESPN.