Louisville vs Stanford Prediction 3/8/25 College Basketball Picks Today

The Stanford Cardinal and the Louisville Cardinals meet Saturday in college basketball action from KFC Yum! Center. Here’s a Louisville vs Stanford prediction. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best Louisville vs Stanford pick.

Stanford Cardinal Betting Preview

The Cardinal have had a couple of spotty runs in the record column so far this year. That said, they’re not doing too badly overall. Stanford kicked things off with six straight wins, then fell to Grand Canyon and Cal Poly before wins versus Utah Valley, Cal and Merrimack. A 2-4 stretch with wins over Virginia Tech and Virginia came next; the losses otherwise were versus Oregon, Clemson, Pitt and Wake Forest. The Cardinal would beat North Carolina, Miami, Florida State and Syracuse, then fell to SMU, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech and Duke (with a win over NC State) in the next five. Since then it’s been a 3-1 run with wins over Cal, Boston College and SMU preceding a loss to Notre Dame. In total over 30 games that gives the Cardinal a 19-11 overall record this year.

In the Notre Dame matchup on the road Wednesday, the Cardinal were up by three points at halftime. Stanford was outscored 35-30 the rest of the way however, leading to a 56-54 loss in the end. Topping the team in scoring was Maxime Raynaud with 20 points and 10 rebounds for a double-double. Ryan Agarwal added 12 rebounds, one assist, one steal and six points, while Jaylen Blakes had 13 points with three assists, two rebounds and two steals in the defeat. Benny Gealer led the bench scoring with his 11 points, five boards and one assist.

Louisville Cardinals Betting Preview

Over on the Cardinals’ side, they had a brief run of bad games way back in December, but aside from that it’s been a pretty great season for them. Louisville lost just one of their first half-dozen outings (versus Tennessee), then hit a 1-4 run with a win over UTEP among losses to Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Duke and Kentucky. A win streak over Florida State, Eastern Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginia, Clemson, Pitt, Syracuse, Virginia, SMU and Wake Forest in succession came next, then a loss to Georgia Tech. Since then it’s been all wins over Boston College, Miami, NC State, Notre Dame, Florida State, Virginia Tech, Pitt and California. That gives the Cardinals a 24-6 record across their first 30 outings of the season so far.

In the California matchup back on Wednesday, the Cardinals came out of the locker room with a commanding lead 41-26. Louisville kept it going with 44 more points in the second half and took the eventual win 85-68. Terrence Edwards led the way on 35 points with four rebounds and one assist. Both J’Vonne Hadley (eight rebounds; two assists) and Chucky Hepburn (seven rebounds; five assists) scored 16 points apiece as well. Noah Waterman led the team off the bench with six points and six rebounds in 18 minutes of action on the floor.

Why the Louisville Cardinals will win

• Louisville has won each of its last 13 home games against non-AP-ranked opponents.
• Stanford has lost 14 of its last 16 games against AP-ranked opponents.
• Louisville has won the first half in each of its last 20 games against the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Why the Stanford Cardinal will win

• Louisville has lost 21 of its last 28 day games against the Atlantic Coast Conference.
• Stanford has won three of its last four games.
• Stanford has won the first half in each of its last four games against the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Total Points Facts

• Nine of Louisville’s last 10 day games against non-AP-ranked opponents at KFC Yum! Center have produced a total of 148+ points.
• Each of Stanford’s last four games against Conference opponents have produced a total of 141 or fewer points.

Louisville vs Stanford Prediction

I’m going to stay with Louisville. The Cardinals are on a tear right now and coming off another nice win over a middling California squad. Louisville bombed in 52.9 percent shooting from the field in that one, giving up just 29.6 percent on the other side. If there were blemishes they included the 20-6 deficit on the offensive glass and the 14 turnovers for 14 Bears points. Still, that makes eight straight wins for the Cardinals, with 71 or more points scored in each.

As for Stanford, they shot just 33.3 percent from the field in their latest loss to Notre Dame, but did give up just 35.4 percent on the other side. The Cardinal had been looking pretty good in three straight wins prior to that, however. That said, this will be a difficult road matchup and I don’t see Stanford keeping pace for too long.