Preview: Louisville Cardinals vs. Kentucky Wildcats

No. 9 Kentucky Wildcats (2-0, 0-0 SEC) at No. 12 Louisville Cardinals (2-0, 0-0 ACC)

- Tipoff: Tuesday, November 11 at 8:00 p.m. EST
- Location: KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Ky.
- How To Watch: ESPN
- How To Listen: 93.9 FM
- Betting Favorite: Louisville -2.5
- All-Time Series: Kentucky Leads 40-17
- Last Meeting: Kentucky won 93-85 on Dec. 14, 2024 (Rupp Arena)

Projected Starting Lineups

Louisville

• G Mikel Brown Jr. (6-5, 190, Fr.)
• G Isaac McKneely (6-4, 195, Sr.)
• G Ryan Conwell (6-4, 215, Sr.)
• G/F J'Vonne Hadley (6-7, 210, 6th)
• F/C Sananda Fru (6-11, 245, Jr.)

Kentucky

• G Otega Oweh (6-4, 220, Sr.)
• G Denzel Aberdeen (6-5, 195, Sr.)
• G Collin Chandler (6-5, 205, So.)
• F Brandon Garrison (6-10, 245, Jr.)
• F Mo Dioubate (6-7, 220, Jr.)

Comparison

See how the Cardinals stack up against the Wildcats, and who the statistical models favor: nbsp;KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Ky

Game Notes

Louisville

• A pair of Cardinals represent Louisville on the Naismith Trophy Player of the Year Watch List as well as the Oscar Robertson Trophy Preseason Watch List; both Ryan Conwell and Mikel Brown Jr. were named to the esteemed lists.
• Freshman guard Mikel Brown Jr. was named to the Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year Award Preseason Watch List while senior guard Ryan Conwell was named the Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year Award Preseason Watch List.
• Louisville led 59-15 at halftime against South Carolina State on Nov. 3. The 44 point halftime lead was the largest in program history.
• Louisville’s two season opening victories marked the first time the Cardinals have had back-to-back 30-point victories since 2016.
• Head coach Pat Kelsey is the reigning ACC Coach of the Year - he is one of 10 active DI head coaches that have earned a Coach of the Year honor in three or more DI conferences.
• Louisville landed two Cards on the ACC Preseason First Team. Both senior guard Ryan Conwell and freshman guard Mikel Brown Jr., earned the nod from the league. Louisville as a program was picked second in the league.
• There are 14 players returning to DI this season that have made at least 175 3-pointers with a career 3-point field goal percentage of 38% or more; Ryan Conwell and Isaac McKneely are two of those 14.
• Currently, five of Louisville’s 2025-26 opponents are ranked in the AP Poll, with four more receiving votes.
• Louisville has 10 newcomers on the 2025-26 roster including redshirt seniors Aly Khalifa and Kobe Rodgers who redshirted the entire 2024-25 season due to injury. See more on the expected to return of the redshirts on Page 7.
• Louisville is 29-0 under Kelsey when leading with five minutes to play.
• The Cardinals landed two players on the Preseason All-ACC First Team, the only program to do so in 2025. Both Mikel Brown Jr., and Ryan Conwell earned the First Team nod.
• There are 14 players who returned to DI this season that started the season with at least 175 made 3-pointers with a career 3-point field goal percentage of 38% or more; Ryan Conwell and Isaac McKneely are two of those 14 players.
• Of the 10 players who were on an NCAA DI roster in 2024-25, eight of them were on teams that played in the 2025 NCAA Tournament. The roster has made 14 cumulative NCAA Division I Tournament appearances at their current/previous schools, playing in 10 NCAA Tournament games across their careers.
• Louisville is one of the older teams in the country this season. By the time
  the Cardinals tip-off the season on Nov. 3, the average age of the 15-man
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• UofL has three Cardinals on the roster that have scored over 1,000 DI points: Ryan Conwell (1,384), Isaac McKneely (1,114) and J’Vonne Hadley (1,042).

Kentucky

• Otega Oweh has been named the preseason SEC Player of the Year and has been named to The Sporting News', CBS' and ESPN's preseason All-America squads. He is UK's leading returning scorer at 16.2 points per game. He's also a Jerry West award and Oscar Robertson Trophy preseason honoree.
• Malachi Moreno had 18 points and 10 rebounds in UK's win vs. Valpo. It marked the first double-double of his career and the first of the season for any UK player. He achieved the feat off the bench and in just 21 minutes.
• Collin Chandler is off to a great start to his sophomore campaign. He currently leads the team in scoring (14.5), steals (1.0), blocks (1.0) and 3-point field-goal percentage (.533). Dating back to last season, Chandler has made 21 of his last 40 attempts from distance.
• Jaland Lowe made his UK debut in the win over Valpo. He contributed six points and a team-high five assists in 18 minutes. Trent Noah missed the contest vs. the Beacons, while Jayden Quaintance continues to recover from a knee injury, meaning UK has yet to be at full strength this season.
• The Cats have allowed 59 or fewer points in their first two games of the season for the first time since 2014-15.
• Kentucky poured in 107 points in the win over Valpo. It is the sixth time under Mark Pope that UK has eclipsed the century mark, and first this season. The 107 points was just one point shy of the most scored under Pope.
• UK and Louisville will meet for the 58th time in the series' history on Tuesday. It will be the first time both teams have been ranked since the 2019-20 season. Tuesday's meeting will mark the earliest the game has ever been played in the series' history. The teams met in November in 1993, but that date came on
  Nov. 27.
• UK leads 14-10 in games played in Louisville. The first meeting was in 1913, a 34-10 win for UK. The highest-scoring game came in 1991 when UK won 103-89
• When Mark Pope was on the UK roster from 1994-96, the
  Wildcats were 2-1 against the Cards. Last season, the Wildcats picked up a 93-85 win in the first meeting between Mark Pope and Pat Kelsey. Lamont Butler starred for the Cats, making all 10 field-goal attempts on his way to a career-high 33 points. It was the second-most points scored by a Wildcat against Louisville behind Derrick Miller's 34 in 1989
• This will mark UK's earliest true road game since Nov. 17, 2008 when the Cats played at North Carolina in the second game of the year

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(Photo of J'Vonne Hadley: Jordan Prather - Imagn Images)

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