Kentucky vs. Louisville: 3 Keys to Louisville Pulling off Dazzling Upset

The Louisville Cardinals will be kings of Kentucky, and earn an appearance in the NCAA championship game, if they can execute the following game plan.

They face an uphill battle and have little room for error—after all, Bovada has them as an 8.5 point underdog—but this is certainly not an impossible task. 

The Cardinals have to focus on a few specific things to give them the best shot at success. And if they can pull these things off, they will beat Kentucky. 

Control the Pace

Louisville does not want this game to turn into a track meet. The Cardinals don't have the athletes to keep up with Kentucky in an up-and-down contest, and that's not their style anyway. 

Louisville finished the year 155th in points scored per game—Kentucky was 20th. 

The Cardinals want to play tough defense and work for good looks on offense. This is a far more deliberate style than Kentucky's. 

Louisville can score points in the open floor, and their press defense creates opportunities, but that doesn't mean they should press the action to get into the open floor. They need to go slow whenever possible. 

Cash-in From Downtown

The big equalizer in any tournament game is the three-point shot. If a team gets hot from the outside, they can take down any team, no matter how big a favorite. 

The good news for Louisville is that they have some players that can stroke it from the outside. 

Kyle Kuric, Chris Smith and Russ Smith can't be left open on the perimeter. They are all capable of going on hot streaks that will change a game. If these guys can consistently hit from downtown, it will give the Cardinals a huge momentum boost and open things up for them in the interior. 

Create Foul Problems

The Cardinals need to be aggressive on offense. They must take it to the rack. This will not only get them some easy looks, but it will also get them to the foul line.

And if they can get a player like Anthony Davis or Michael Kidd-Gilchrist into foul trouble, they can turn the tables on any talent disadvantage they have. 

On the other end of the spectrum, they cannot get into foul trouble themselves—especially Gorgui Dieng. 

He is going to be charged with the task of slowing down Davis, and he is the only Cardinal who has a hope of doing so. He has fouled out of five games this year.