The ACC is competing with the Big 12 for the most dominant conference in college basketball right now as several teams rank in the Top 25 ranking. Each team cannot afford to suffer a bad game as they risk falling in the rankings. Saturday will be no different as another slate of heated matches kickoff. Virginia and Louisville will start things as they go head-to-head in a heated battle of Top 16 teams.
In past years, Louisville was known as a sharp-shooting team, but this season they are getting by more with their defense. Head coach Rick Pitino notes that defensive can win championships just as long as the shooting is good, but not great. That will be put to the test when Virginia comes into town with their No.11 ranking looking to get a nice road win to their name.
The Cardinals are coming off a nice win against Virginia Tech as they shot 51.9 percent overall in one of their better shooting performances of the season. Damion Lee had 29 points while Trey Lewis added 22 in the win. The Cardinals weakness appears to be when they shoot well, they defend poorly which was the case against Virginia Tech. However, overall Louisville has one of the better defensive units in college basketball as they rank third in field-goal percentage while giving up the fewest amount of points per game in their conference. They will be tested to keep that up against the Cavaliers as they have only been shooting 44.7 percent in their past eight games.
"Believe me we live on defense, but we're not a great defensive team this year," Pitino said, via ESPN.com. "We are a terrific offensive team. We had one bad-shooting night -- Clemson (the Cardinals' last loss Jan. 10) -- and everyone thinks we're a bad-shooting team."
Virginia is also riding their defense this season, but that has been slipping lately. The team is now ranked 10th in the conference in field-goal percentage defended. They were third in the category last season. The Cavaliers have won three straight including a buzzer-beating win over Wake Forest on Tuesday. Wake Forest managed to shoot 53.5 percent overall against the Cavaliers, something they cannot afford to let happen again if the team intends to get a road win and keep the win streak alive.
