On Wednesday night in Coral Gables, Florida, the Miami Hurricanes, who are undefeated at home, will welcome the Louisville Cardinals in an Atlantic Coast Conference matchup. Last season, Miami (11-3, 2-1 ACC) advanced to the NCAA Final Four. In contrast, Louisville just finished with a 4–28 record. Before the previous season, the Cardinals had never lost more than 20 games in the program’s illustrious history, which includes three national championships. Louisville’s record (5-9, 0-3) suggests that they have at least marginally improved this season. But the Cardinals are losing their last three games (by a combined 56 points) coming into Wednesday.
The wellbeing of Miami’s three starters—Nikel Pack, Norchad Omier, and Wooga Poplar—who are all dealing with ankle issues—is crucial. Despite missing two consecutive games, Poplar leads the country in 3-point percentage (50.0) and is averaging 16.2 points. In addition to his team-high 4.1 assists, Pack is averaging 13.8 points. In terms of scoring (18.1), rebounds (9.1), two-point percentage (67.7), and field goal percentage (62.3), Omier is the leader for Miami. Poplar and Pack are iffy, according to Miami coach Jim Larranaga, but Omier will play. According to Larranaga, “Norchad is a different kind of human being.” “How does a lion react if you damage him? He becomes angry and more combative. Thus, I believe Norchad will be alright. Omier is a player of all-conference caliber, according to Larranaga as well. “He has such value,” Larranaga remarked. “When he went out for two minutes (in Saturday’s 86-82 overtime loss at Wake Forest), they outscored us 10-zip.”
Three significant transfers were added to Louisville’s roster this season by second-year coach Knny Peayne: Tre White of Southern California, Skyy Clark of Illinois, and Danilo Jovanovich of Miami. In terms of scoring, Clark leads Louisville (14.9). White is scoring 12.7 points per game on average, but he has missed the last two games because of a groin ailment. The two games that White has missed have been started by Jovanovich, who only saw two minutes of action in Miami’s redshirt year prior to this one. In those two games, Jovanovich has averaged 3.0 points. Payne stated that Jovanovich doesn’t have to be a superstar in order for him to perform certain tasks, like playing positional defense. “I need a player who can pass, who understands where to be on the court, and who has good spacing,” Payne stated. “I need someone who can get strong rebounds and is selfless. “(Jovanovich) is capable of all those actions.”I just want him to play hard and have confidence in himself. We brought him here because we trusted him.”
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