After Louisville got blown out at previously 1-9 Florida State 75-53 to drop to 0-9, I started to wonder is Louisville on its way to being worst ACC team in the last quarter century? Now there is still 2/3 of the season left, so we’ll have to see how the Cards do during conference play, but if today is any indication Louisville is historically bad.
Kenny Payne couldn’t be having worse start to his tenure at Louisville, and he “probably” won’t be fired in year 1, but red flags are popping up everywhere.
The Cardinals currently sit 360 in the Net rankings, 325 in the RPI, and 237 in the KenPom.
Let’s look at some of the other teams in ACC recent history that 2023-2023 Louisville is up against.
Any team that won more than 10 games in a normal season or more than 5 during the 2020-2021 COVID season wasn’t considered
Clemson 1999-2000, 10-20 (2-14) RPI #168
This Clemson team was 6-6 entering conference play. They were bad, but 2022-2023 Louisivlle can’t touch them.
Clemson 2003-2004, 10-18 (3-13) RPI #90
Louisville won’t see an RPI with a 90 in it, unless it’s 190 or more likely 290.
Wake Forest 2010-2011, 8-24 (1-15) RPI #268 Ken Pom #259
Wake Forest is the first team here that Louisville might match, but it won’t easy. The Deacs started the year 5-3 and even had a P5 win over Iowa. They did only win 1 game after the first week of January giving the Cards a shot.
Boston College 2011-2012, 9-22 (4-12) 2011-2012 RPI #244 Ken Pom #261
This Boston College team beat a 24 win Florida State squad that won the ACC Tournament. There are worse Boston College teams on this list.
Virginia Tech 2013-2014, 9-22 (2-16) RPI #246 Ken Pom #174
This Virginia Tech team actually won 4 games in a row at one point, but only won 1 game when the calendar turned to 2014. Teams with Ken Pom’s better than 200 aren’t the worst ACC team of the past 25 years.
Boston College 2015-2016, 7-25 (0-18) RPI #250 Ken Pom #225
Boston College went winless in the ACC, but did start the year 3-0. Louisville could certainly make a case they are better than any team that went winless in the ACC if they win 3 or 4 ACC games, but BC’s 7 total wins may not be catchable.
Boston College 2016-2017, 9-23 (2-16) RPI #219 Ken Pom #173
This 2016 – 2017 BC team was awful, but they were better than the previous year’s BC team. They can’t top the worst ACC team of the last 25 years just because of that.
Pittsburgh 2017-2018, 8-24, (0-18) RPI #216 Ken Pom #227
Pittsburgh is the second winless conference team on this list, but had already won 6 games at the same time in 2017 as Louisville this year.
A couple of things to note here. Why is Boston College on the list so many times first of all, and Louisville is in great position to be the worst ACC team in the last quarter century. At the moment it’s not even close.
2022-2023 Louisville by RPI is significantly worse than every team on this list. Ken Pom at least makes it debatable.
Even if Louisville wins a couple of ACC games, can you really put a team that wins fewer than 5 games ahead of anyone here?
That’s Louisville’s target is win 5 total games with at least a couple of ACC wins and they Cardinals can avoid being the ACC’s worst team of the last 25 years. At least at that point it’s not a slam dunk.
The bar is really low for HC Kenny Payne, and that’s a shame for a proud basketball program that deserves better.
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