Miami @ Louisville preview

Last Meeting ( Nov 5, 2019 ) Louisville 87, Miami-Florida 74

After back-to-back losses to Kentucky (78-70) and Florida State (78-65), No. 11 Louisville looks to get back on track Tuesday as it hosts ACC rival Miami in the second meeting of the season between these teams. The Cardinals prevailed in that first contest 87-74 in the season opener for both squads but Miami had been on a five-game roll until its 95-62 loss to second-ranked Duke on Saturday.

Despite their recent woes, the Cardinals are never really in trouble as long as they have star forward Jordan Nwora, the Preseason ACC Player of the Year who tied his career best with a 32-point effort in the loss to Florida State and leads the conference in scoring with 21 points per game. Still, Louisville can't afford to let opponents have as much success shooting the ball as the Seminoles did on Saturday, when they connected on 55.2 percent of their shots from the field, the best effort for a Cardinal opponent this year. The Hurricanes, too, come off their worst defensive showing of the season, as they let Duke finish with the highest field goal percentage (59.7), most points (95) and made field goals (40) of any Miami opponent this season. "They didn't do anything that threw us off our game," Miami head coach Jim Larranaga told reporters afterward. "They do everything to make your life miserable and they do that against everybody."

TIME: 7 p.m. ET. TV: ESPN2

ABOUT MIAMI (9-4, 1-2 ACC): The Hurricanes have their own prolific scorer in junior guard Chris Lykes (15.3 ppg), who became a member of the 1,000-point club last week and joins Nwora as the top two in the ACC in career points among all returning scorers. Lykes, however, only managed eight points in the loss to Duke, only the second time this season he failed to register double digits, as Kameron McGusty (12 points) and redshirt junior forward Sam Waardenburg (11) were the only Hurricanes to score in double figures. DJ Vasiljevic continues to lead the conference in 3-point percentage (46.2) despite hitting just 1-of-3 against Duke, but he was 4-of-7 from deep in the first meeting with Louisville as he registered 16 points, just behind Lykes' 18.

ABOUT LOUISVILLE (11-3, 2-1): Nwora comes off his 12th career double-double as he added 10 rebounds to his 32 points against Florida State and sits second on the team in rebounding (7.4 rpg) to Dwayne Sutton (8.5). Steven Enoch ranks second on the team in scoring (11.5), but no other Cardinal is averaging in double figures, with Ryan McMahon and Sutton both averaging 8.9 points per game. Louisville had more offensive rebounds than defensive ones in the loss to Florida State, the first time they accomplished that feat since December 2015, as they finished with a season-best 19 offensive boards, the most since December 2016.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. With its win in the season opener, Louisville owns a 12-4 series mark against Miami, including victories in three of the last four meetings.

2. The Cardinals have started with at least an 11-3 record through 14 games for the ninth time in the last 10 years.

3. Louisville is one of just two current ACC teams (Wake Forest) that Miami has not defeated on the road under ninth-year coach Larranaga.

PREDICTION: Louisville 76, Miami 69