The No. 8 seed Louisville Cardinals will take on the No. 9 seed Creighton Blue Jays in the 1st Round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament in Lexington, Kentucky. This is scheduled to be the first game of the tournament at 12:15 ET on Thursday. Louisville is a 2.5-point favorite for this game, which is basically a pick ’em. Louisville does hold a slight statistical advantage. Do you think the first two days of the Men’s NCAA Tournament should be a national holiday?
Louisville’s Key Players
Louisville has five players who average more than 10 points a game. The leading scorer for the Cardinals is Terrence Edwards Jr. Edwards Jr. is a senior 6-foot-6 guard from Atlanta, Georgia. He averages 16.6 points per game.
Chucky Hepburn is a senior guard from Omaha, Nebraska. He averages 16.2 points per game for the Cardinals. He gives them a viable second-scoring option. The third-leading scorer for the Cardinals is Reyne Smith. He averages 13.4 points per game. This makes for a three-headed guard monster for Louisville.
The fourth-leading scorer from the Cardinals is senior Guard J’Vonne Hadley. The 6-foot-6 player averages 12.1 points per game and is from St. Paul, Minnesota. The fifth-leading scorer is Kasean Pryor. He is a senior forward from Chicago, Illinois He averages 12.0 points for the Cardinals and 6.1 rebounds. Those are three of the five starters for the team. They also start James Scott and Noah Waterman. Pryor and Smith have been coming off the bench for the Cardinals. You can see the full Louisville roster here.
The Cardinals rank 45th in the nation in rebounding efficiency. The Blue Jays rank 65th. That is an advantage for Louisville. In defensive efficiency, the Cardinals rank 40th nationally while the Blue Jays rank 86th. This is another advantage for Louisville.
Creighton’s Key Players
The Blue Jays have four players who average more than 10 points a game. The leading scorer for Creighton is Ryan Kalkbrenner. Kalkbrenner is a senior center from Florissant, Missouri. He averages 19.4 and 8.8 rebounds per game points per game. He is a handful and the team’s best player. Steven Ashworth is a senior guard from Alpine, Utah. He is the second-leading scorer for Creighton at 16.3 points per game.
The third-leading scorer for the Blue Jays is Pop Isaacs. He is a junior guard from Los Vegas, Nevada. He averages 16.3 points per game. The fourth-leading scorer from the Blue Jays is senior Guard Jamiya Neal. He is from Toledo, Ohio. The 6-foot-6 player averages 11.5 points per game. You can view all of the statistics for Creighton here.
What Is Next?
The winner of this game will play the winner of the game between Auburn and Alabama State. Auburn is the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament. They should win their first game. The winner of Creighton-Louisville will face a serious challenge. The game will be on CBS. Because this is the first game of the tournament on Thursday the second game for the winner will be on Saturday.
Prediction
Louisville is 23rd in the Ken Pom rankings. Creighton is ranked 37th. This discrepancy, coupled with the Louisville advantage on the boards and defense, points to a narrow Louisville win, 70-67. The Cardinals must figure out how to guard Kalkbrenner.
Conclusion
This is the first game of the tournament and will be close. This game is a great way to kick off the tournament. It is between two evenly matched teams. Louisville should win a close one. This game is sure to please the fans in Lexington.
