The Louisville Cardinals and the NC State Wolfpack meet Saturday in college basketball action from PNC Arena. Louisville is 5-2 this season so far. The Cardinals lost to Michigan State in their last game. As for the Wolfpack, they’re 6-1 and coming off a 4OT win over Nebraska. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
Louisville posted a 1-1 start with a win over Southern U and an 80-72 loss to Furman. After a four-game win streak over Navy, Detroit, Mississippi State and Maryland, the Cardinals posted a 73-64 defeat in their last outing versus Michigan State.
In the Spartans game, Louisville trailed 36-28 at the break and couldn’t get any closer in the 73-64 loss. El Ellis led the team with 22 points in 18 minutes of work, and Dre Davis added 15 points with four rebounds and one assist.
Over on the NC State side, they kicked off the year with wins over Bucknell, Colgate and Central CT State. After a loss to Oklahoma State, the Wolfpack bounced back with wins over Texas Southern, LA Tech and Nebraska.
In the Nebraska matchup on Wednesday, the Wolfpack had to fight through four overtime periods to finally dispatch the Cornhuskers 104-100. Dereon Seabron led the team with 39 points, two assists and 18 rebounds in 57 minutes of work.
The Wolfpack are 3-12-1 ATS in their last 16 at home and 1-7 ATS in their last eight overall. NC State is 3-12 ATS in their last 15 Saturday games.
Meanwhile, the Cardinals are 4-1 ATS in the last five after a straight-up loss and the under is 3-0-1 in their last four overall. The under is 5-2 in Louisville’s last seven after an ATS loss.
PICK: I’m going to stick with NC State in this one. The Wolfpack are coming off a resilient effort against a pesky Nebraska team. NC State overcame a tepid 37.1 shooting percentage from the floor (and 17.6 percent from 3-point range) with a whopping 66 rebounds and 11 blocks. That makes 194 points scored over their last two games.
As for Louisville, they didn’t show too badly in their last matchup versus a pretty darn good Michigan State team. I think the Cardinals can hang around here for most of the game, but I like NC State a little better on a cover/win.