When Louisville visits SMU on Tuesday night in Dallas, the Cardinals will do so as a nationally-ranked team.
Just 8-24 a season ago, Pat Kelsey is turning the tide in his first year as head coach, and the nation is taking notice.
Louisville (14-5, 7-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) was ranked No. 25 in Monday’s AP Top 25 poll as the Cardinals prepare for a Quad 1 contest at SMU (14-4, 5-2 ACC). It will be the first time the two have met as ACC foes.
“I don’t really think about those things,” Kelsey said Monday when asked about the likelihood of being ranked and its impact. “Things like that, whether it’s a winning streak or being ranked, are good for a lot of things. I appreciate what comes with some success that you’ve had.
“But a winning streak is all in the past. Your ranking is about what you’ve done up to this point, not what you’re doing moving forward. All we focus is on and stress is the current thing.”
In many ways, SMU and Louisville are following the same trajectory this season, with several similarities underscoring both teams’ resurgence.
Both are led by new head coaches: Andy Enfield at SMU, Kelsey at Louisville. They each sit in the top half of the ACC standings: Louisville tied for second, SMU knotted at fifth. Against ACC opponents, they both rank in the conference’s top three in points per game (SMU averaging 79.9 ppg, Louisville at 78.8).
For SMU, which went 10-22 two seasons ago, the Mustangs have seamlessly made the jump from the American Athletic Conference to the ACC. They turned heads by dropping 117 points on Miami last Saturday, the highest-scoring performance in an ACC game since Wake Forest put up 119 at North Carolina in 2003.
But it was the defense that Enfield keyed in on postgame. He pointed to SMU’s 54-52 win over Virginia three days prior.
“(Virginia plays) a slower-paced game,” Enfield said. “We played great. We just couldn’t make a shot. But I think our guys got a lot of confidence from how we won Wednesday and they understand now — and they’ve been doing it for a while — how they can help each other out on the defensive end. That was their goal: to create offense from their defense.”
SMU has done plenty of that this season, averaging 16.7 points off turnovers per game. Boopie Miller has played a key role in that, ranking second on the team in steals (28) while leading the offense with 14.7 ppg. A point guard with exceptional court vision, the Wake Forest transfer is second in the ACC in assists per game (6.0).
Miller’s ball-handling and passing have been just as crucial as his scoring, directing SMU’s balanced scoring attack that sees Chuck Harris (12.4), Matt Cross (10.6) and B.J. Edwards (10.4) also averaging double figures in points.
Chucky Hepburn has been to Louisville what Miller has been to SMU. The Wisconsin transfer seeks his ninth consecutive game with at least seven assists on Tuesday night, and he leads the Cardinals in scoring with 15.2 ppg. Within ACC play, Hepburn has posted a plus-2.8 assist-to-turnover ratio.
“He’s playing like one of the best point guards in the country,” Kelsey said of Hepburn, “because he is.”
