Michael Cohen
College Football and College Basketball Writer
When the bracket was released on Sunday evening, one of the early pairings that raised eyebrows across the sport was a matchup between No. 8 Louisville and No. 9 Creighton. Not only was this game going to be played in Lexington, Kentucky, which seemed to give the Cardinals a built-in advantage in their home state, but it also represented a significant discrepancy between what the selection committee thought of Louisville and the perception of head coach Pat Kelsey’s team among the general public.
The Cardinals had quickly become one of the best stories in college basketball in their first season under Kelsey, formerly of Charleston. They finished the regular season 27-7 overall (18-2 in the ACC) after winning just 12 games over the previous two campaigns combined. And their run to the championship game of the ACC Tournament last weekend seemed to suggest that Louisville was playing excellent basketball at the right time, even if Kelsey’s team was ultimately upended by Duke. It was a résumé that led most folks to assume the Cardinals would be seeded anywhere on the 4-, 5-, or 6-line in the Big Dance. That they ended up as an 8-seed in the South was a legitimate surprise, as evidenced by Kelsey’s reaction on live television when the bracket was announced.
But the nature of Thursday’s first-round matchup with Creighton, which dismissed the Cardinals, 89-75, in a game that was never all that close, suggests the selection committee got the seeding right, maintaining the appropriate skepticism about subpar competition in the ACC. Not even an overwhelmingly pro-Louisville crowd, which made this tournament opener sound like a bonafide Cardinals’ home game, was enough to narrow what became a clear imbalance between the teams.
Fresh off a trip to the Big East Tournament title game, the Bluejays unleashed a barrage of 3-pointers that extended an early lead to 20 in the waning seconds of the first half. Point guard Steven Ashworth buried four of them on eight attempts. Small forward Jackson McAndrew connected on three of his seven tries. Shooting guard Jamiya Neal, who scored a career-high 29 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, chipped in two 3s of his own. As a team, Creighton shot 11-of-24 from beyond the arc to finish plus-9 compared to the Cardinals, who were forced to chase for much of the game but never got within single digits in the second half. The best efforts of point guard Chucky Hepburn (22 points) and Terrence Edwards Jr. (21 points) weren’t enough to offset an otherwise cold shooting night for Louisville from beyond the arc (8-of-29, 27.6%).
With the win, Creighton advances to the Round of 32 for a potential matchup with No. 1 overall seed Auburn on Saturday.
Michael Cohen covers college football and college basketball for FOX Sports. Follow him on Twitter @Michael_Cohen13.
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