Piscataway, NJ (My Sportsbook) - The ninth-ranked Louisville Cardinals are still undefeated in the Big East and they will try to keep their perfect record intact against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights tonight.
On Saturday, the Cardinals made their argument for being the best in the Big East, as they upended top-ranked and previously undefeated Pittsburgh by a 69-63 score. It was the third straight win over a Top 25 opponent and the program's first against a No. 1 ranked team since downing Florida in 2003. Winners of five straight, Louisville now sits at 13-3 overall and is just one of two teams still undefeated in the Big East at 4-0.
As for Rutgers, it has dropped each of its past six outings, with five of those games coming against nationally-ranked teams. The squad was last in action a week ago, when it lost to unranked Cincinnati 71-59. With the setback, the Knights dipped to an even 9-9 overall and remained winless in conference play at 0-5.
Rutgers and Louisville are meeting for the eighth time, with the Cardinals holding a 6-1 lead in the series. Last season, the Cardinals won both meetings against the Knights, including a 64-49 triumph in Piscataway.
The Cardinals are a versatile and athletic club and they are outscoring opponents by 14.2 ppg, while holding them to just 38.2 percent shooting from the field. Earl Clark is the type of player that can do it all and he leads Louisville in scoring (13.9 ppg), to go with 9.0 rpg and 3.0 apg. Freshman Samardo Samuels checks in with 13.6 ppg and 6.2 rpg, while Terrence Williams adds 12.8 ppg. Williams can do much more than just score and he paces the team with 9.2 rpg, 4.9 apg and 37 steals. On Saturday, Williams tallied 20 points and grabbed seven caroms to lead Louisville in an upset of Pitt. Clark notched a double-double with 16 points and 11 boards, and Samuels finished with 10 points and seven rebounds. Louisville forced 20 turnovers in the contest and limited Pitt to just a 34.9 percent shooting effort from the field.
The Knights have really struggled to slow down Big East foes this season, allowing conference members to score 78.4 ppg and shoot an efficient 50.2 percent from the field. Despite the team's struggles since the start of conference play, freshman Mike Rosario has remained consistent, averaging 17.1 ppg overall and a similar 16.0 ppg within the league. Anthony Farmer checks in with 10.1 ppg and he has upped that average to 11.8 ppg in conference action. In the team's last game, Rosario and Farmer combined for 23 points, but that wasn't enough for Rutgers in a loss at Cincinnati. The Knights turned the ball over 17 times in the game and went just 4-of-14 from beyond the arc.
