On Wednesday night, the Boston College men’s basketball team will host the Louisville Cardinals in Conte Forum. BC is coming fresh off of their spectacular last-minute comeback against Florida State on Saturday, while the Cardinals just lost to Georgia Tech and fell out of the top-25.
Who: Boston College Eagles (10-11, 2-8 ACC) vs. Louisville Cardinals (16-6, 9-2 ACC)
Where: Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, MA
When: Wednesday February 5th, 2025
Tip-off Time: 7:00 PM EST
How to Watch: This game will be broadcast on the ACC Network
Boston College finally broke a six-game losing skid on Saturday when Chas Kelley miraculously saved the Eagles at the end of the game with a deep three and last minute block to overcome FSU. But it was still a struggle to get there and BC has had to rely heavily on the performance of Donald Hand Jr. in recent weeks, who has been performing incredibly with his shooting. Hand scored 26 and 31 points in each of his last two games and is averaging 15.5 points per game this season, the highest on the team. His performance, especially from behind the three-point line, has given this BC offense a jolt of energy recently that they desperately need. Boston College is only scoring 71 points per game as a team this season, which is good for just 263rd place of 364 teams in Division 1 college basketball. But if Hand can keep this performance up and the rest of the BC roster is able to play off of him, things may play out differently in the second half of the season.
Louisville has been a much different story. The Cardinals were ranked #21 in the nation last week before they lost to Georgia Tech on Saturday. UL is the 4th-best offense and 6th-best defense in the ACC up to this point in the season and they won 10-straight games from late December and throughout all of January. It’s a major turnaround for a program that was in the dumps these past few years and had an 11-49 ACC record from 2021-2024.
New head coach Pat Kelsey has found a dynamic scoring group in senior guards Chucky Hepburn (transfer from Wisconsin), Reyne Smith (transfer from College of Charleston), Terrence Edwards (transfer from James Madison), and J’Vonne Hadley (transfer from Colorado). These new players, alongside some other transfers, have totally revitalized this program in an incredibly short amount of time. The team takes the 4th-most three-pointers per game in all of Division 1 and, although they don’t necessarily convert their threes at a high percentage, it has allowed their offense to thrive in its spacing. Driving and kicking is an absolute staple of this team that allows their veteran playmakers to find open lanes to the bucket or a kickback for a three-pointer on almost every possession.
Louisville’s defense isn’t quite as strong as their offense, but it’s still a solid unit. The team is disciplined and doesn’t tend to foul very often, forcing their opponents to work for their scoring. Boston College would be well served by leaning on Chad Venning and their other forwards to attack the paint, especially if Donald Hand doesn’t get going early. Venning with his size could have a great game against this Cardinal defense, whose forwards are tall but can be exploited in the post.