The University of Louisville basketball is headed west -- way west.
Louisville (24-8) received a No. 4 seed in the East region of the 2015 NCAA tournament, but the Cardinals will start the tournament on Friday in Seattle against 13th seed University of California-Irvine.
The Cards are paired up with the second overall No. 1 seed, Villanova, in the region, which will have its semifinals and finals in Syracuse. Louisville's four-team pod in Seattle also features fifth-seeded Northern Iowa and 12th seed Wyoming.
The tip times for each game will be announced later Sunday evening.
The rest of the region features a bunch of familiar faces to Louisville. Fellow ACC members Virginia (2 seed) and NC State (8 seed) are in the same 16-team group. Rick Pitino's former team, Providence, is the region's sixth seed.
U of L was a bit of a unique situation for the NCAA tournament's selection committee. The Cardinals played six games this season without starting point guard Chris Jones, who was dismissed from the team in late February. When things like that happen, the committee tries to balance a team's full body of work, from the first game of the season to the last, against what the team looks like without the missing player.
In Louisville's case, the Cards lost three games without Jones -- at Syracuse, home vs. Notre Dame and in the ACC tournament against North Carolina. They also won three -- at Georgia Tech, at Florida State and home vs. Virginia. That's a hard group of games to judge, because Notre Dame and North Carolina are two of the top 15 teams in the RPI, so the losses aren't considered "bad," while the home win against Virginia is one of the best wins that any team has had this season.
Beyond that, Louisville did not have a practice without Jones to prepare for the Syracuse game and had just one without Jones before the Georgia Tech trip.
The committee had to take all those factors into consideration. They ranked Louisville 15th on their 1-68 team rankings list.
"Louisville is a strong team without Chris Jones and they'll still be a strong team," selection committee chairman Scott Barnes said. "No bad losses there. We tracked that. We talked quite a bit about it."
Looking at Louisville's full profile, there are obviously more positives than negatives.
The Cards finished with a top-25 RPI and strength of schedule. They have two wins against RPI top-15 teams and won 12 in the competitive ACC, which is ranked third in conference RPI. Aside from the Syracuse loss, which came on the road, Louisville did not have a so-called "bad" defeat this season. The Cards' other seven losses came against RPI top-50 teams. What's more, Louisville was 9-4 on road or neutral courts.
On the flip side, Louisville's non-conference strength of schedule ranked 134th an hour before the Selection Show, and the Cards were just 9-8 against RPI top-100 opponents.
Louisville (24-8) received a No. 4 seed in the East region of the 2015 NCAA tournament, but the Cardinals will start the tournament on Friday in Seattle against 13th seed University of California-Irvine.
The Cards are paired up with the second overall No. 1 seed, Villanova, in the region, which will have its semifinals and finals in Syracuse. Louisville's four-team pod in Seattle also features fifth-seeded Northern Iowa and 12th seed Wyoming.
The tip times for each game will be announced later Sunday evening.
The rest of the region features a bunch of familiar faces to Louisville. Fellow ACC members Virginia (2 seed) and NC State (8 seed) are in the same 16-team group. Rick Pitino's former team, Providence, is the region's sixth seed.
U of L was a bit of a unique situation for the NCAA tournament's selection committee. The Cardinals played six games this season without starting point guard Chris Jones, who was dismissed from the team in late February. When things like that happen, the committee tries to balance a team's full body of work, from the first game of the season to the last, against what the team looks like without the missing player.
In Louisville's case, the Cards lost three games without Jones -- at Syracuse, home vs. Notre Dame and in the ACC tournament against North Carolina. They also won three -- at Georgia Tech, at Florida State and home vs. Virginia. That's a hard group of games to judge, because Notre Dame and North Carolina are two of the top 15 teams in the RPI, so the losses aren't considered "bad," while the home win against Virginia is one of the best wins that any team has had this season.
Beyond that, Louisville did not have a practice without Jones to prepare for the Syracuse game and had just one without Jones before the Georgia Tech trip.
The committee had to take all those factors into consideration. They ranked Louisville 15th on their 1-68 team rankings list.
"Louisville is a strong team without Chris Jones and they'll still be a strong team," selection committee chairman Scott Barnes said. "No bad losses there. We tracked that. We talked quite a bit about it."
Looking at Louisville's full profile, there are obviously more positives than negatives.
The Cards finished with a top-25 RPI and strength of schedule. They have two wins against RPI top-15 teams and won 12 in the competitive ACC, which is ranked third in conference RPI. Aside from the Syracuse loss, which came on the road, Louisville did not have a so-called "bad" defeat this season. The Cards' other seven losses came against RPI top-50 teams. What's more, Louisville was 9-4 on road or neutral courts.
On the flip side, Louisville's non-conference strength of schedule ranked 134th an hour before the Selection Show, and the Cards were just 9-8 against RPI top-100 opponents.
