Two games is by no means enough sample size to determine what the outcome of a full season may be, especially for Louisville basketball, but it’s not too soon to begin moving teams around in the college basketball rankings. As we saw this Thanksgiving weekend, upsets are already happening and the top 25 that was released leading up to the season has officially become outdated.
Since tipping off on Wednesday top 25 squads Virginia, Kansas, Arizona State, and UCLA have all suffered defeat, with the #4 ranked Cavaliers suffering the biggest upset at the hands of San Francisco. That means there’s sure to be shake up in the updated polls come Sunday, and if it were up to Stadium’s Jeff Goodman, the new look rankings would include the Louisville Cardinals.
In his updated top 25 rankings released on Twitter, Goodman included the Cards for the first time this season at #25 behind Florida, Texas, UC.onn, Florida State, and San Diego State.
Obviously Goodman’s opinion won’t have much impact on the rankings when they are released Sunday, but they do serve as a good barometer of where Louisville basketball stacks up nationally.
It’s still early but Louisville basketball has looked a lot further along than most expected them to, especially without having the services of senior’s Malik Williams and Charles Minlend due to injury. Through two games Carlik Jones has been as good as advertised, averaging a near triple double with 18 ppg, 9.5 rpg, and 6.5 apg. while Chris Mack has gotten much more out of freshmen Dre Davis and J.J. Traynor than even he likely expected to at this point in the season.
Picking up a win over Seton Hall, a likely tournament team in 2020-21, is a huge resume builder and more importantly a confidence booster for a young and inexperienced team. Injuries have decimated the Cards lineup leaving them without the aforementioned Williams and Minlend, as well as sophomore guard Josh Nickelberry and now potentially Samuell Williamson, yet it didn’t keep them from picking up an impressive early season win.
Even coming off of a 14-day pause, Seton Hall gave Louisville one hell of a fight led by a game-high 22 points from Sandro Mamukelashvili, coming back late in the game from a double-digit deficit only to lose on a missed free throw in the closing seconds. After the game Mack told the local media, “I gave them a lot of props for even playing the game. Kevin (Willard) is such a stand-up guy, he’s a terrific coach, they have such an incredible culture of toughness and they’re hard to play against. He goes 14 days and doesn’t practice, there would be a lot of coaches to mail it in and say were not going to play any games until we get a few practices under our belt. We’re really fortunate to win the game and move on to our next game on Sunday.”
Though the game didn’t end with as much flare as it could’ve had Louisville not blown the 11 point lead they had with a little over eight minutes to go, they were able to walk away with impressive win that could put them in the top 25.
Louisville will be back out on the court Sunday when they face Prairie View A&M at 6:00.
