Preview: Louisville takes on SMU in ACC Tournament opener

Pierre is the perfect combo guard to play alongside Miller. He’s a good three-point shooter (37.0 percent), but his real strength is using his athleticism to whip his man off the dribble and finish strong at the rim. Pierre hasn’t been asked to be the playmaker for others that he was at JSU, but he’s a capable enough passer to be respected. He’s also a terrific rebounder for his size. Like Miller, he’s a much better offensive player than defensive. He can (and I assume will) be attacked when Louisville has the ball, just as he was in each of the first two games.

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Senior guard B.J. Edwards (12.7 ppg/4.9 apg) has missed SMU’s last four games with an ankle injury, and his status for Wednesday afternoon is currently unknown. A career “just ok” outside shooter, Edwards has shot 37.2 percent from deep this season and has made at least one three in 11 consecutive games. While his offensive numbers are all up, the strength of his game has always been his defense. The third runner-up for ACC Defensive Player of the Year, Edwards currently leads the league in steals at 2.3 per game. He didn’t score especially well in either of the first two games against Louisville, but he recorded three steals in both contests.

Samet Yigitoglu, a 7’2 center from Turkey, has upped his production significantly in his sophomore season. He’s averaging 11.0 points and 7.o rebounds per game, and is an effective rim protector averaging 1.3 blocks per contest. Yigitoglu isn’t overly skilled or mobile, but if you allow him to catch the ball at or near the block, he becomes a more than capable scorer. He’s 11-of-16 from the field in two games against Louisville, although the Cards did a much better job against him defensively in round two … which is about the only thing they did better defensively in round two.

With Edwards sidelined, Enfield has opted to go with a two center starting lineup, inserting freshman big man Jaden Toombs (7.6 ppg/4.1 rpg) into the starting five. Toombs was terrific against Syracuse, scoring 16 points, grabbing 11 rebounds and dishing out six assists from the soft middle of the Orange zone. Keeping SMU off the offensive glass becomes even more of an issue with Toombs playing bigger minutes.

Senior forward Corey Washington (11.3 ppg) is capable of torching any defense that becomes overly focused on slowing down Miller and Pierre Jr. Louisville found this out first hand three weeks ago when Washington scored 18 points on 7-of-9 shooting and 3-for-3 from deep against the Cards.

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If Edwards doesn’t play again on Wednesday, depth is a concern for SMU. Enfield played just three players from his bench in the win over Syracuse, and that trio combined for zero points over 21 minutes. A tightly called game likely benefits the Cards here, even with SMU being a pretty good free-throw shooting team.

While SMU shoots the ball very well from three (37.6 percent, 24th-best in the country), they’re usually very selective with their outside shooting. Where they really thrive is scoring in transition and attacking the basket in the halfcourt. Knowing this, Louisville played off the Mustang shooters in an attempt to cut-off driving lanes in the first meeting, and SMU promptly went nuts from the outside. The Cards adjusted to take away the three in the second 20 minutes, and held them to just 27 points. They tried a similar approach in round two, and the Mustangs lit them up from both inside and outside the arc.

This is about as dangerous an offensive team as there is in the ACC outside of Duke, but if you’re reading this, you almost certainly already know that. Without Mikel Brown Jr., the Cards will need to shoot the ball as well as they did against Miami on Saturday if they want to spend at least one more night in Charlotte.

Notable:

—Louisville is 4-5 all-time in ACC Tournament openers.

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—Since joining Conference USA in 1995-96, Louisville is 18-10 in its first conference tournament game across C-USA, the Big East, the American and the ACC.

—Louisville is 5-9 all-time in the ACC tournament, and is coming off the first year where it won more than one game in the event.

—SMU went 1-1 in its first ACC Tournament (2025) defeating Syracuse 73- 53 in the second round before falling 57-54 to Clemson in the quarterfinal.

—The Mustangs have won three conference tournament titles in their history (1988 Southwest, 2015 American, 2017 American).

—Louisville has made it to at least the quarterfinals in 11 of the last 15 conference tournaments it has participated in.

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—In college basketball history, a team has never lost its first conference tournament game and gone on to win the NCAA tournament. Every national champion has advanced to at least its conference tournament semifinal.

—SMU has lost 16 of its last 18 games against AP ranked opponents, including its loss to Louisville on Jan. 31. The Mustangs are 2-5 against top 25 teams this season, with one of those wins and one of those losses coming against the Cardinals.

—Louisville head coach Pat Kelsey has an 18-4 overall record in conference tournament games, and has led his teams to five conference tournament championships. Kelsey has won eight of the last nine conference tournament games he’s coached in.

—SMU head coach Andy Enfield is 15-12 all-time in conference tournament games, with one conference tournament championship.

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—SMU’s upset over No. 2 Louisville in the 1967 NCAA Midwest Regional (Lawrence, Kan.) is tied for the highest ranked opponent that SMU has defeated

—Louisville is 39-4 under head coach Pat Kelsey when leading at halftime.

—Louisville is 0-9 under head coach Pat Kelsey when trailing by 5 points or more at halftime.

—Louisville has won four of the last 15 conference tournaments it has competed in, but has not won a league tournament since 2014.

—Louisville’s team average of 85.8 points per game is the 17th-best in college basketball.

—Louisville averages 11.9 made three-pointers per game, the most in the ACC and the fourth-most nationally.

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—Louisville is 12-1 in Saturday games so far this season, and just 10-8 in games played on any other day of the week.

—Louisville has hit the 100-point mark six times in a season for the first time ever.

—Louisville is 48-0 under head coach Pat Kelsey when leading with five minutes to play. The Cardinals are also 0-17 under Kelsey when trailing with five minutes to play.

—Louisville is 14-0 over the past 11 seasons when limiting opponents to no more than one three-point field goal.

—Louisville is 122-0 all-time when scoring 100 or more points in non-overtime games.

—Louisville has won 167 consecutive games when holding an opponent under 50 points.

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Ken Pomeroy Prediction: Louisville 87, SMU 81