Louisville Basketball: 5 Players To Watch In The Duke Game

We take a look at the five players to watch when Louisville basketball squares off against the Duke Blue Devils on Saturday afternoon.

The Louisville basketball team has a huge game against Duke on Saturday afternoon and they need to win to finally get above .500 in ACC play for the first time this season. The Cards are coming off a decent win against Pittsburgh, but they are looking for their first legit conference win of the season.

Louisville won their last match-up against Duke, but that was largely in thanks to Damion Lee. However, the Cards will need a new hero to step up against the Blue Devils this time around.

Take a look at the five players you need to watch in Saturday’s game:

5. Jayson Tatum | Duke Blue Devils

While he has only played in nine games, the freshman superstar is quietly becoming one of the best players in the nation. He is currently second on the team in scoring per game and is also dominating on the boards. It’s imperative that the Cards slow him down this weekend.

It’s been pretty impressive to see how well he has done in only a small sample of games this year, especially when you realize that his lowest scoring total of his NCAA career was ten against Maine.

However, the most impressive things about Tatum has been his performance in ACC play. Take a quick look at his scoring totals:

Let’s just hope that Tatum has his first bad game against the Cardinals on Saturday afternoon because if not, Louisville will have a tough time handling the plethora of scorers that Duke has on their roster. However, we have said that before and the Cards rose up to the challenge each time.

4. Anas Mahmoud | Louisville Cardinals

Anas Mahmoud has stepped into a starting role for Rick Pitino over the past few weeks and has done a great job. His defensive abilities have taken his game to a whole other level this year, as he is second in the conference in blocks per game with 2.6.

It’s going to be interesting to see how Mahmoud responds after having a down game against Pittsburgh on Wednesday night. While he didn’t play bad, he didn’t perform like he has over the past few weeks.

His presence on the court has been huge for the Cards, who are now back to .500 in conference play and need a huge win over Duke this weekend. If Mahmoud can continue becoming a Gorgui Dieng-like factor for the Cards, then Louisville will be able to hand Duke their second straight loss on Saturday.

3. Luke Kennard | Duke Blue Devils

Luke Kennard is definitely one of the main players that Louisville must slow down on Saturday. He is currently averaging 20.4 points per game, which ranks him as the fourth best scoring threat in the entire ACC.

As only a Sophomore, Kennard is playing much better with improved minutes this season. He is not only averaging 20.4 points per game, but he is also averaging 5.6 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game as well.

He is truly becoming a difference-maker on a Blue Devils team that is highly talented, but they are currently dealing with a ton of off-the-court distractions. If Duke can just stay above sea-level for the rest of this season, Kennard will be a large reason why they can make a Final Four run come March.

2. Quentin Snider | Louisville Cardinals

Quentin Snider is coming off the Cardinals’ win over Pittsburgh having scored a season-high 22 points for the second time this season. Whenever Louisville has needed someone to have a huge game in order to take down an elite powerhouse, Snider has risen to the challenge this year.

The last time Louisville had a top ten opponent coming into the KFC Yum Center, Snider scored 22 points to stun the Kentucky Wildcats. His scoring kept the game in hand, as Louisville was able to beat the Cats for the first time in years.

With that being said, will Quentin Snider have another Kentucky-like performance, but this time against the Blue Devils? While it’s getting easy to expect Donovan Mitchell to score at a high pace, Snider has also been highly reliable from the perimeter in 2016-2017. Let’s see if he can give Duke all kind of problems on Saturday.

1. Grayson Allen | Duke Blue Devils

That’s right, our number one player to watch against Louisville on Saturday afternoon is Grayson Allen. He has been public enemy number one of the 2016-2017 college basketball season, but that’s not why he is the number one player to watch on our list.

The last time these two teams met up, the Cardinals were able to beat the Blue Devils 71-64 in from of the home crowd. It gave Louisville their 21st win of the season, as Damion Lee had a team-high 24 points.

However, Lee wasn’t the game’s leading scorer, it was actually Grayson Allen.

Allen finished the game against Louisville with 29 points, as he went 5-8 from the perimeter. As much as everyone loves to hate on this kid, he can flat-out shoot. The Cardinals must rebound from letting Jamel Artis scoring 43 points on Wednesday night if they want to beat Duke on Saturday.