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Tuesday, October 28
LOUISVILLE, KY
7 p.m.
University of Louisville
99
vs
76
Bucknell (EXH)
Cardinals Win Second Exhibition 99-76 Over Bucknell
October 28, 2025 | Men's Basketball
Box ScorePat Kelsey Press ConferenceBox Score (PDF)Isaac McKneely/Mikel Brown Jr. Press ConferencePostgame NotesPhoto Gallery
Louisville logged 31 makes on 26 assists, including 23 field goals from long range
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The No. 11 University of Louisville men's basketball team defeated Bucknell 99-76 in its final exhibition game of the preseason, thanks to a strong shooting night that saw the Cardinals make 23 shots from deep.
"The first thing I want to mention is what a great cause," said head coach Pat Kelsey. "I talked to Bob Valvano after the game. First time I met him, I felt like I was meeting basketball royalty. As I said on the radio interview, the name Valvano is synonymous with college basketball. I told him my first memory of the NCAA tournament was when I went on a little family spring break vacation to Hilton Head in 1983. It was cold and rainy and awful, but it was the Final Four in Albuquerque when NC State made that shot at the buzzer. Bob's brother, Jim, ran around the court like crazy. Then obviously one of the most impactful sport speeches, maybe ever, was the speech that Jimmy V gave at the Espy's and I could almost recite it. Most of us can. It is such a nasty, nasty, horrible, wretched disease. Cancer is something that affects and has touched everyone in the room, everybody everywhere. This cause, Kentuckiana Friends of V (KFV) and Bob is such a champion to this cause that is special to his heart. It helps people dealing with cancer, it helps for cancer research. Anyone listening to this, Bob told me the early returns of the donations look really good. We will make sure everybody has the website (kfov.org) so please go and donate. I am glad we were able to do this for Jimmy V."
"Bucknell is really good," Kelsey continued. "John does an unbelievable job. I didn't get a chance to talk to him after the game. He is a really good coach. He has that program going in the right trajectory. He runs really good stuff – his ATOs (after timeouts), baseline out of bounds. We stole one of his and I think he stole one of ours. We ran one of our plays and he ran one of our plays that we saw in preparation. I have known John for a long time. He was on the team that beat Kansas at Bucknell. My long-time friend and associate head coach Mark Prosser, who is now the head coach at Winthrop, coached John on that team. John was a fiery, tough, gritty dude. He came to Wake Forest for camp and got into a fight with every one our players. I thought our guys played well. Defended and collected the ball, all of our metrics were really, really good. We shared the ball and shot a very high percentage from three. What I was most pleased with was our assist percentage which was really high compared to our field goals."
Bucknell jumped out to an early 10-5 lead. UofL responded back with a 12-2 run, fueled by four makes from deep. Louisville entered the first timeout up 17-12.
The first 15 minutes of the game was a back-and-forth affair featuring six ties and eight lead changes. Trailing 36-35, the Cards finished the final 4:48 of the half on a 21-3 run, with the help of a barrage of makes from three. Louisville entered the break with a 56-39 lead.
UofL's offense was sparked by shooting from behind the arc, going 14-for-29 in the first half. Brown Jr. scored 18 points in the period, going 6-for-9 from downtown.
The shooting stayed hot for the Cardinals, coming out of the half, starting 4-for-7 from deep. Louisville would lead 69-47 with 14:44 left on the clock.
A 3-pointer from Fru at the 08:04 mark would give Louisville an 86-59 upper hand, the 27-point edge would match the largest lead of the night for UofL.
A Khani Rooths' dunk with 02:56 left, put the Cards up 99-72, that capped off the scoring on the night for Louisville.
The Cards were led by Mikel Brown Jr. who recorded 28 points, while shooting 8-for-11 from three. Isaac McKneely finished second on the team in scoring, registering 18 points, going 6-for-9 from downtown.
UofL finished the game 31-62 (50.0%) from the field, 23-46 (50.0%) from long range and 14-18 (77.7%) from the charity stripe.
Louisville will now head into regular season play, when it opens the season on Monday against South Carolina State at 9 p.m. ET.
"The first thing I want to mention is what a great cause," said head coach Pat Kelsey. "I talked to Bob Valvano after the game. First time I met him, I felt like I was meeting basketball royalty. As I said on the radio interview, the name Valvano is synonymous with college basketball. I told him my first memory of the NCAA tournament was when I went on a little family spring break vacation to Hilton Head in 1983. It was cold and rainy and awful, but it was the Final Four in Albuquerque when NC State made that shot at the buzzer. Bob's brother, Jim, ran around the court like crazy. Then obviously one of the most impactful sport speeches, maybe ever, was the speech that Jimmy V gave at the Espy's and I could almost recite it. Most of us can. It is such a nasty, nasty, horrible, wretched disease. Cancer is something that affects and has touched everyone in the room, everybody everywhere. This cause, Kentuckiana Friends of V (KFV) and Bob is such a champion to this cause that is special to his heart. It helps people dealing with cancer, it helps for cancer research. Anyone listening to this, Bob told me the early returns of the donations look really good. We will make sure everybody has the website (kfov.org) so please go and donate. I am glad we were able to do this for Jimmy V."
"Bucknell is really good," Kelsey continued. "John does an unbelievable job. I didn't get a chance to talk to him after the game. He is a really good coach. He has that program going in the right trajectory. He runs really good stuff – his ATOs (after timeouts), baseline out of bounds. We stole one of his and I think he stole one of ours. We ran one of our plays and he ran one of our plays that we saw in preparation. I have known John for a long time. He was on the team that beat Kansas at Bucknell. My long-time friend and associate head coach Mark Prosser, who is now the head coach at Winthrop, coached John on that team. John was a fiery, tough, gritty dude. He came to Wake Forest for camp and got into a fight with every one our players. I thought our guys played well. Defended and collected the ball, all of our metrics were really, really good. We shared the ball and shot a very high percentage from three. What I was most pleased with was our assist percentage which was really high compared to our field goals."
Bucknell jumped out to an early 10-5 lead. UofL responded back with a 12-2 run, fueled by four makes from deep. Louisville entered the first timeout up 17-12.
The first 15 minutes of the game was a back-and-forth affair featuring six ties and eight lead changes. Trailing 36-35, the Cards finished the final 4:48 of the half on a 21-3 run, with the help of a barrage of makes from three. Louisville entered the break with a 56-39 lead.
UofL's offense was sparked by shooting from behind the arc, going 14-for-29 in the first half. Brown Jr. scored 18 points in the period, going 6-for-9 from downtown.
The shooting stayed hot for the Cardinals, coming out of the half, starting 4-for-7 from deep. Louisville would lead 69-47 with 14:44 left on the clock.
A 3-pointer from Fru at the 08:04 mark would give Louisville an 86-59 upper hand, the 27-point edge would match the largest lead of the night for UofL.
A Khani Rooths' dunk with 02:56 left, put the Cards up 99-72, that capped off the scoring on the night for Louisville.
The Cards were led by Mikel Brown Jr. who recorded 28 points, while shooting 8-for-11 from three. Isaac McKneely finished second on the team in scoring, registering 18 points, going 6-for-9 from downtown.
UofL finished the game 31-62 (50.0%) from the field, 23-46 (50.0%) from long range and 14-18 (77.7%) from the charity stripe.
Louisville will now head into regular season play, when it opens the season on Monday against South Carolina State at 9 p.m. ET.
Players Mentioned
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