The Louisville Cardinals saw their 10-game winning streak come to a screeching halt in Atlanta on Feb. 1 thanks to Georgia Tech. While the loss may have come as a surprise, coach Pat Kelsey’s team is still on track to exceed expectations for this college basketball season, and has already bounced back with two more conference wins.
Just as we did during the college football season, tracking the Louisville Cardinals bowl chances, BetKentucky is now watching the UofL hoops team and what seed they may earn come Selection Sunday. You won’t find these March Madness odds at licensed Kentucky sports betting operators, like Fanatics Kentucky Sportsbook.
What Seed Will Louisville Be In NCAA Tournament?
Seed | Percentage Chance | Odds |
2 Seed | +25000 | 0.4% |
3 Seed | +3750 | 2.6% |
4 Seed | +1250 | 7.4% |
5 Seed | +600 | 14.3% |
6 Seed | +385 | 20.7% |
7 Seed | +365 | 21.5% |
8 Seed | +535 | 15.7% |
9 Seed | +1100 | 8.3% |
10 Seed | +2600 | 3.7% |
The Field | +1750 | 5.4% |
These odds are exclusive to BetKentucky.com and are unavailable on Kentucky sports betting apps.
While Saturday’s loss knocked the Cards out of both the Associated Press and USA TODAY Coaches’ polls, it did little to affect their status as an NCAA Tournament contender. As of Tuesday, Louisville is 29th in the NCAA’s NET Rankings and 30th at Kenpom.com. That’s still good enough for UofL to earn an at-large bid.
Louisville has seven Atlantic Coast Conference games remaining in the regular season, and barring any injuries or other setbacks, they should be favored in each of them. At 18-6 overall and 11-2 in the ACC, Kenpom forecasts the Cardinals to finish the season at 23-8 and 16-4.
Should that happen and should the Cardinals win a game or two in the ACC Tournament, that would likely be enough for UofL to earn between a fourth and a sixth seed.
Even with the Cardinals considered near locks to get into the tournament, they are still longshots to win it. Caesars prices the Cards chances at +8000. Their odds to make the Final Four are +2000 at bet365 Kentucky sportsbook.
Where Will Louisville Go Come March?
Typically, the top 16 teams, those seeded first through fourth in a region, get considered for a first weekend site close to their campus. However, the possibility exists no team west of Texas may make those seed lines. If that’s the case and Louisville makes it as a fourth seed, then the possibility exists the selection committee would send the Cardinals to either Denver or Seattle.
Milwaukee and Cleveland could be in the mix as well, although if the Cardinals land there it would because they are a fifth or sixth seed, setting up a potential second-round game between the Cards and a team like Wisconsin, Iowa State, Purdue or Michigan State.
Of course, the NCAA also loves to engineer storylines. Louisville’s last NCAA Tournament game took place in 2019 against a Minnesota team coached by Richard Pitino 18 months after Richard’s father Rick Pitino was fired amid an NCAA investigation. Maybe the committee pairs Louisville and Rick Pitino’s St. John’s team in Providence, where Pitino was once a coach.
Lexington will serve as a site for the first weekend of the tournament, but it’s likely that Alabama and Auburn, two teams projected to be top seeds in a region, would land there. That means Louisville would only go there, potentially, if they were an eighth or ninth seed, and that doesn’t seem realistic. Auburn and Alabama, for now, have earned the right to have easier paths to the Sweet 16 and asking either of them to play a Louisville team in Kentucky would go against that.
Louisville’s Upcoming Games
The Cardinals next play Wednesday night at NC State. TheWolfpack are just 2-10 in conference play and 9-14 overall.
No Kentucky licensed sports betting operator has set lines on the game as of early Tuesday afternoon, but they should be released later in the day. Based on the ratings for both teams, Louisville should be a 12- or 13-point favorite on the road, with the total around 146.
BetKentucky.com is home to the best Kentucky sportsbook promos for March Madness and everything else.
USA Today photo by Jordan Prather.
Author
Steve is an accomplished, award-winning reporter with more than 20 years of experience covering gaming, sports, politics and business. He has written for the Associated Press, Reuters, The Louisville Courier Journal, The Center Square and numerous other publications. Based in Louisville, Ky., Steve has covered the expansion of sports betting in the U.S. and other gaming matters.
