The set-up: With Rick Pitino being forced out before the season began (I'm assuming all know the story), the Cardinals' 14-4 (4-1 in ACC) record has to be considered pretty good. Louisville will welcome the surprising 13-6 Boston College Eagles (3-3 in ACC) to the KFC Yum!. BC entered this season having won less than 10 games in three of its previous four seasons (9-23 last year and a high of 13 wins in that span), so one can see why I called the Eagles "surprising."

Boston College: Even with an up-and-coming backcourt of Jerome Robinson and Ky Bowman, little was expected this season from a Boston College, a team which had won a total of two conference games in two years and no more than four in any of the previous four seasons. Boston College was chosen to finish 14th in the 15-team ACC in the preseason. However, with junior Robinson leading the way with 18.2 PPG and 6-1 sophomore Bowman averaging 16.4 PPG plus 7.1 RPG and a team-leading 5.1 APG, the duo is changing the perception of the Eagles.: Robinson has been a roll since the start of conference action, scoring a league-best 23.3 points per game while shooting 55.6 percent from the floor (fourth in the ACC) and 52.6 percent from 3-point range (second). Meanwhile, Bowman is the only player in the country to rank among the top-10 in scoring and assists plus the top-15 in rebounding.BC has kept it going despite losing the 6-8 Hawkins (12.4 & 9.1) to a season-ending knee injurie after just eight games. 6-8 forward Steffon Mitchell (7.2 & 7.9) has emerged as an inside force over the last four games, averaging 12.8 points and 8.5 boards, and he is poised to become the sixth freshman to lead the team in rebounding since 1972-73. Then there is the 6-11 Popovic, who has delivered a solid season at 9.4 & 5.9.

Louisville: The Cardinals were projected to finish fifth in the ACC in the preseason poll as Rick Pitino was fired in October, with relatively raw assistant David Padgett tnamed as interim head coach. Louisville enters this contest having won three in a row after outlasting Notre Dame on the road 82-78 in double overtime on Tuesday. Quentin Snider (13.1 & 4.2 APG) is coming off one of the finest games of his career, as he matched a personal best with 22 points and dished out a season-high seven assists. 6-10 junior forward Ray Spalding (11.7 & 9.2) posted his fourth double-double in the last seven games on Tuesday, finishing with a career-high 23 points and 12 rebounds. The team's leading-scorer is the 6-7 Deng Adel (15.7 & 4.6), who has reached double figures in 20 of his last 21 outings dating back to last season (he scored nine in the one game he came up short in).

The pick: BC is clearly on an upward surge but the Eagles are still looking to find a way to earn a conference win away from Conte Forum, which they have not done in 19 tries since defeating Virginia Tech on March 2, 2015. Also, I can't ignore that only four of the Eagles' defeats during their road conference losing streak have been decided by single digits. However, BC is 8-3 SU since the beginning of December, going 6-3 ATS, In that stretch, BC has beaten Duke as a 15-point home dog, lost at UVa as a 15 1/2-point dog, covered a as a home dog vs. Clemson and in its last outing, beat FSU as a a 3 1/2-point home dog. Upset alert! Make the Eagles an 8* play.