Chris Mack is a great coach and I expect Louisville to put forth a maximum effort following Saturday's 79-69 home loss to North Carolina. There is no shame in losing to North Carolina. There is shame, though, in how meekly the Cardinals went down to defeat. Louisville is 8-1-1 ATS following a point spread loss. The Cardinals also have covered in six of their past seven road contests.

Until falling to the Tar Heels, the Cardinals had won six straight Atlantic Coast Conference games, winning those games by an average of 18 points. So maybe they were due for a flat performance. I don't expect a second bad game in a row.

Virginia Tech is coming off a bizarre 47-24 road victory against North Carolina State on Saturday. The Hokies only hit 36 percent of their shots, but still won by 23 points. Virginia Tech got away with not having senior point guard Justin Robinson against the frigid-shooting Wolfpack. But the absence of Robinson, who is out with an ankle injury, could really hurt the Hokies versus the Cardinals. Robinson is Virginia Tech's second-leading scorer and leads the team in assists.