Seth Greenberg declares Louisville had a 'magical season' but was 'bad matchup' for Creighton

The conversation can continue about whether or not Louisville was wrongly seeded in the 2025 NCAA Tournament. That said, with their season now over, ESPN was honest about this year for the Cardinals.

‘Get Up’ made several points about Louisville, which lost 89-75 to No. 9 Creighton as the No. 8 in the South Region of the bracket, during the show on Friday. That started with Mike Greenberg stating that the 14-point loss had no say in whether or not the Cardinals were actually underseeded by the committee back on Selection Sunday.

“I want to start by making a statement because I had a lot of people who were tweeting at me yesterday. I was very hard on the committee when I said that I felt like Louisville was underseeded and I had people, after they lose yesterday, say, oh, what do you have to say now? So, I’ll tell you what I have to say. I apologize…to no one!” Greenberg said. “There is absolutely no bearing, what happens in the tournament has no bearing whatsoever on whether the committee got things right or wrong. It is not their job to decide who’s going to win games and who isn’t. In the same way that Carolina winning the other night, and even if they win tonight, doesn’t justify them getting in, it has nothing whatsoever to do with whether Louisville was seeded correctly or not.”

“Their job is not to guess what’s going to happen in the future,” Greenberg said. “It is to judge what has happened in the past.”

Many felt Louisville (27-8, 18-2) deserved better than being on the eight-line, considering how it had played the final three months of the season as one of the two or three best teams in the ACC. However, that’s where the Cardinals were slotted and, with that, were set up with a first-round matchup against the Bluejays, one of the best teams out of the Big East.

In that game, Creighton came to the bluegrass and won with an offensive output where it shot 57.1% overall and 45.8% from three. Essentially, all of that came from the starting lineup, too, in Jamiya Neal (29 points, 12 rebounds), Steven Ashworth (22 points (4 3PTs), five assists), Ryan Kalkbreener (14 six rebounds, four blocks), and Jackson McAndrew (11 points, 3 3PTs). That all led to the second-most points the Cardinals had allowed all season – with both of the top two coming inside Rupp Arena.

Because of that, Seth Greenberg didn’t take anything away from this season for Louisville under Pat Kelsey. The Cardinals had one of their best records in a decade, and their best conference mark ever, but just, whether correctly seeded or not, met a team that they were a bad matchup with.

“I agree with you. If anyone was mis-seeded, it was Creighton,” Seth Greenberg said. “Creighton got to the finals of the Big East Tournament. Creighton is a hard matchup. Creighton has got Kalkbrenner, who’s a great defender. Creighton has got guys who can make shots. Look, look, Louisville had a magical season. There’s no doubt about it. But this Louisville team was a bad matchup because they can play Kalkbrenner in the middle of the lane and he’s a one-man zone.

“What Pat Kelsey did was absolutely incredible. He took over a team that absolutely struggled the last five years and brought them to the NCAA Tournament with the year they had in the ACC. Incredible.”

Louisville is likely unhappy today, having gotten to play just one game, either because of seeding and, therefore, a tough matchup with it, in its return to the NCAA Tournament. Still, the Cardinals have to be entering their second offseason under Kelsey feeling very good about the direction of their program now.