Louisville Due for Non-Conference Finale

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Louisville men's basketball emerges from the holiday break for its non-conference finale against the Eastern Kentucky Colonels on Saturday afternoon at 12 p.m. The game will be broadcast on The CW.

The Cardinals recently moved to 1-1 in league action with a 90-76 road win at Florida State. The Colonels most recently lost to Jacksonville State 91-80 at home.

The Louisville-EKU series is the longest of any team on the Cardinals' schedule this year with 75 games between the programs. Louisville leads the series 53-22 with a 40-4 mark at home.

GAME 13
Listen: Cardinal Sports Network (WLCL 93.9 FM & WGTK 970 AM flagship);
Streaming (Paul Rogers, pxp | Bob Valvano, analysis)
Watch: The CW (Evan Lepier, pxp | Seth Davis, analysis)
Live Stats: Louisville Stats

PROMOTIONS

Winter Wonderland | Celebrate the holiday season as the KFC Yum! Center becomes a Winter Wonderland.

CARDINAL NOTES

Louisville is one of 18 teams in the country this season to play at least four in-state opponents in its non-conference slate. The Cardinals faced Morehead State, Bellarmine and Kentucky already this season.
Senior guard Reyne Smith was named ACC Player of the Week on Dec. 23 for his 27-point performance at Florida State. It was just the third time in the program's 11 years in the ACC that Louisville has had mutliple ACC Player of the Week awards as Chucky Hepburn also earned that title on Dec. 2.
Against Florida State on Dec. 21, Chucky Hepburn and Terrence Edwards Jr. both logged eight assists apiece; it was the first Louisville game to have two Cardinals log at least eight assists each in the same game since Peyton Siva and Gorgui Deng both had eight against Syracuse in the 2013 Big East Tournament championship game.
Louisville have played five ranked opponents before the New Year. The Cardinals have the 12th best strength of schedule according to KenPom as of Dec. 27.
Louisville's 89-61 victory over No. 14/15 Indiana in the quarterfinals of the Battle 4 Atlantis was Louisville's first win over a ranked team since beating No. 19/20 Virginia Tech 73-71 on Jan. 6, 2021. It's the highest ranked opponent the Cards have beat since beating No. 3 Duke 79-73 on Jan. 18, 2020.
In the win over Indiana, UofL's Chucky Hepburn logged 16 points, 10 assists and seven steals. He's the first DI player with at least those marks since Markquis Nowell of Kansas State did it against West Virginia with 23 points on Dec. 31, 2022.
All four of Louisville's losses are to teams now in the top 20 in the AP Poll: No. 1 Tennessee, No. 4 Duke, No. 13 Oklahoma and No. 19 Ole Miss.
As of Dec. 27, Louisville is fifth in the country in three-point attempts per game (32.2) and 52nd in three pointers per game (9.6). Chucky Hepburn is fifth in the country in steals per game at 2.92 and fourth in total steals with 35. Reyne Smith is 18th in the country in 3-pointers per game at 3.42,16th in total three-point attempts (107) and 18th in total three pointers made (41).
Against Winthrop on Nov. 22, Louisville logged 10 blocks, including seven in the first half. Sophomore James Scott blocked five on his own. The 10 total, seven in a half and Scott's five were all the first time those feats happened for the Cardinals since March 7, 2018 against Florida State

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Players Mentioned

Terrence Edwards Jr.

Chucky Hepburn

James Scott

Reyne Smith

University of Louisville Athletics