Virginia Cavaliers vs Louisville Cardinals Prediction, 1/18/2025 College Basketball Picks, Best Bets & Odds

Game: Virginia Cavaliers vs Louisville Cardinals

Date: Saturday, January 18, 2025

Location: KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, KY

TV: ESPN+

The Virginia Cavaliers (8-9) are traveling to KFC Yum! Center on Saturday where they will meet the Louisville Cardinals (13-5).

The Virginia Cavaliers played SMU and took a loss by a final of 54-52 in their last game. Regarding personal fouls, the Cavaliers finished with 14 while SMU totaled 17 personal fouls. They converted 5 of their 21 attempts from 3-point land. SMU finished shooting 42.9% at the charity stripe by making 3 of 7 tries. In addition, SMU snagged 36 rebounds (8 offensive, 28 defensive), but wasn't able to record a block. SMU doled out 12 assists and had 6 steals for the matchup. With regard to defense, Virginia allowed 43.4% from the field on 23 of 53 shooting. They also recorded 15 assists for the matchup in addition to forcing the other team into 12 turnovers and getting 8 steals. Regarding pulling down boards, they compiled 28 with 5 of them being on the offensive end. When they shot from the charity stripe, the Cavaliers knocked down 12 of their 15 attempts for a rate of 80.0%. Virginia ended the contest with a 34.6% FG percentage (18 out of 52) and made 4 out of their 26 shots from beyond the arc.

Blake Buchanan is one player who came through for this contest. He ended up going 71.4% from the field and also dished out 2 dimes. He was on the court for 27 mins and pulled down 15 rebounds. He accounted for 11 points on 5 of 7 shooting.

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Virginia heads into this game with a mark of 8-9 so far this season. They are giving up possession 11.0 times per game and as a group they commit 14.6 fouls on a nightly basis. As a team, Virginia is pulling down 30.7 rebounds per game and has totaled 242 dimes for the year, which ranks 173rd in the nation in terms of passing. The Cavaliers are connecting on 35.5% on 3-pointers (131 of 369) and 75.4% from the charity stripe. They currently have an average of 61.0 points per contest (360th in the country) while going 42.7% from the field.

Defensively, the Cavaliers are forcing 9.6 turnovers per contest while drawing 14.3 personal fouls. They surrender 32.5% on shots from downtown and they are 19th in college hoops in points per game allowed (63.4). The Cavaliers defensively are giving up an opponent FG percentage of 41.1% (385 of 937) and they surrender 33.8 rebounds per game as a squad. They currently rank 81st in Division 1 in giving up assists with 199 conceded so far this year.

When they last stepped on the court, the Louisville Cardinals went home victorious with a score of 85-61 when they played Syracuse. The Cardinals were able to pull down 28 defensive rebounds and 8 offensive boards totaling 36 in this game. They also gave up possession of the ball 10 times, while earning 6 steals in the matchup. Syracuse earned 10 fouls for this game which took the Cardinals to the free throw line for a total of 11 attempts. They were able to make 11 of the free throw tries for a clip of 100.0%. In the matter of shooting from beyond the arc, Louisville converted 12 of their 28 tries (42.9%). At the conclusion of this game, the Cardinals went 31 for 62 from the floor which gave them a rate of 50.0%. The Cardinals allowed Syracuse to knock down 24 out of their 60 attempts from the field which gave them a shooting percentage of 40.0% for the contest. They finished 32.0% from distance by going 8 out of 25 and walked away from this one shooting 5 of 9 from the charity stripe (55.6%). In regard to rebounding, Louisville permitted Syracuse to pull down 29 in total (7 offensive).

Chucky Hepburn ended up being a major contributor for the Cardinals in this contest. He totaled 24 points in his 37 mins of playing time and had 7 assists for the contest. He knocked down 8 of 13 in this matchup for a rate of 61.5%, and had 1 rebound.

Louisville has a record of 13-5 on the year. The Cardinals are committing 15.8 fouls per contest and they shoot 72.4% from the free throw line. They are getting an assist 13.7 times per game (202nd in the country) and they cough up possession 11.6 times per contest. Louisville has accounted for 1,408 pts for the season (78.2 per contest) and they snag 38.5 boards per game. As an offense, the Cardinals are connecting on 43.7% from the floor, which is ranked 245th in Division 1.

The Louisville defense gives up 34.8% on three-point shots (141 of 405) and opponents are connecting on 71.4% of their foul shots. They have given up 12.2 dimes and 33.3 rebounds on a nightly basis, which ranks 108th and 126th in college. The Cardinals are ranked 128th in college in PPG allowed with 69.7. They are forcing 13.5 TO's per game and allow teams to shoot 43.7% from the floor (210th in college hoops).

Who will win tonight's NCAA game against the spread?

Tony Sink's Pick: Take Virginia

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