FSU basketball's dominance over the rival Miami Hurricanes continued on Wednesday night. The Noles returned to the win column after an embarrassing home loss against Clemson and will hit the road looking to pull off another upset.
The last time FSU basketball (16-10, 7-8 ACC) traveled away from the Tucker Center, they pulled off a massive come-from-behind win over the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. FSU trailed by 15+ plus points with fewer than 10 minutes remaining to upset Wake Forest outright as +8.5 point underdogs.
The challenge will be even steeper when they take on the Louisville Cardinals (20-6, 13-2 ACC) on Saturday at noon ET. FSU will enter the contest as a +13.5 betting underdog, with an over/under point total of 151.5.
Those odds imply an 83-69 win for the Cardinals. Louisville will be an NCAA Tournament team and tied with Clemson for second place in the ACC behind the Duke Blue Devils.
Louisville traveled to Tallahassee in late December and handled the Noles easily, winning 90-76. The game was closer than the final score. FSU only trailed by two at halftime and only four with nine minutes remaining.
However, Louisville hit three-pointers on back-to-back possessions, and FSU couldn't recover. Louisville made 15 three-pointers and shot 51 percent overall. FSU shot 52.7 percent and made 8 of 20 three-pointers.
Louisville went 19 of 23 from the charity stripe, while FSU went 10 of 14. The Cardinals outrebounded the Noles 29-23 and were +2 on offensive rebounds.
The Noles only had nine turnovers and outscored the Cardinals 32-24 in the paint. However, FSU's inability to force turnovers on defense and Louisville's shooting lights out from the three-point and the free-throw line was where the separation happened.
FSU has a propensity to allow teams to light them up from beyond the arc. Louisville only shoots 32 percent from the three-point line as a team, so maybe they'll struggle to replicate that offensive effort from long-range. FSU will need that and another efficient offensive output like the first matchup for a shot to pull off the upset.
The game will air on The CW Network.