The early match-up between Louisville & Davidson looks to feature some interesting storylines, along with style clashes between the two teams. Here’s a look at the history of both teams in the NCAA Tournament:

Louisville #4
Tournament Appearances: 38
Tournament Wins: 60
Final Four Appearances: 8
National Championships: 2 (1980, 1986)

Davidson #13
Tournament Appearances: 10
Tournament Wins: 8
Final Four Appearances: 0
National Championships: 0

Starting Line-Ups

Louisville:

Peyton Siva (G) – Height: 6’0″
PPG: 9.1
APG: 5.5
SPG: 1.8
TPG: 3.5

Chris Smith (G) – Height: 6’2″
PPG: 10
APG: 2.1
SPG: 0.9
TPG: 1.1

Kyle Kuric (G-F) – Height: 6’4″
PPG: 13.1
RPG: 4.4
SPG: 1.3

Chane Behanan (F) – Height: 6’6″
PPG: 9.0
RPG: 7.4
BPG: 0.4

Gorgui Dieng (C) – Height: 6’11”
PPG: 9.4
RPG: 9.1
BPG: 3.2

Davidson:

Nik Cochran (G) – Height: 6’3″
PPG: 11.0
APG: 3.7
SPG: 1.0
TPG: 1.8

J.P. Kuhlman (G) – Height: 6’4″
PPG: 11.1
APG: 2.9
TPG: 1.6

Chris Czerapowicz – (G) Height: 6’7″
PPG: 10.2
RPG: 4.8

De’Mon Brooks – (F) Height: 6’7″
PPG: 16.0
RPG: 6.3
TPG: 1.7

Jake Cohen – (F) Height: 6’10”
PPG: 14.0
RPG: 6.0
BPG: 1.7

This is a classic scrappy defensive team vs. a high scoring offensive team game. Generally, it’s the team from the smaller conference that looks to play scrappy, but here’s it’s reversed. Davidson is averaging 78 pts/game, which is good enough for 12th overall in the NCAA. They also rebound well, averaging 38/game, for 19th in the league. On the other side of the court U of L has been less than stellar on offense throughout the year, though most of that stems from playing in one of the best defensive conferences in the nation. During the year, U of L played grind-it-out defense, holding teams to an average of 61 points/game.

Player to watch: Peyton Siva – All eyes will be on Peyton Siva in this matchup, who stepped his game up during the Big East tournament. While he has been extremely spotty throughout the regular season, success in the tournament is generally defined by “what have you done for me lately”. Which bodes well for both Louisville and Siva, winning the Big East tournament. Siva is coming in as hot as he’s been in his career. One of his biggest problems is turning the ball over, as he averaged 3.5 turnovers/game, which is deadly against an team as offensively minded as Davidson. You never want to give up easy buckets to a team who is most likely going to already score on you.

Also, Siva is capable of hitting the big game shots which is always valuable in the tourney…

Twitter has strong reactions to the game so far, with many U of L fans going in confident after the Big East tourney…