Cardinals Open Season with South Carolina State

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Louisville men's basketball embarks on its 112th season with South Carolina State on Monday evening. The Cardinals take on the Bulldogs at 9 p.m. ET in the KFC Yum! Center on the opening night of college basketball on ACC Network.

The Cardinals split their exhibition games, most recently defeating Bucknell on Tuesday night 99-76. South Carolina State played Allen University on Friday night, winning the exhibition game 92-53.

Louisville and South Carolina State have never met prior to Monday night, but Cards' head coach Pat Kelsey has faced the Bulldogs once at each of his previous stops at Winthrop and the College of Charleston. Kelsey is 2-0 against South Carolina State in his head coaching career.

GAME 1
Listen: Cardinal Sports Network (WLCL 93.9 FM & WGTK 970 AM flagship);
Streaming (Paul Rogers, pxp | Bob Valvano, analysis)
Watch: ACC Network (Jay Alter, pxp | Terrence Oglesby, analysis)
Live Stats: Louisville Statbroadcast
Buy Tickets: Purchase

CARDINAL NOTES

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 returns just a single starter and five Cardinals who have suited up in the Red and Black before. Overall, UofL returns 22.9% of its scoring (628 of 2,747 points), 31.2% of its rebounding (407 of 1,305), 18.3% of its assists (89 of 486) and 25.7% of its minutes (1,807 of 7,025) from the 2024-25 season.
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.
The Cardinals were ranked No. 11 in the country in the Preseason AP Poll released on Oct. 13. It was the first time Louisville was ranked in the preseason poll since being No. 5 at the beginning of the 2019-20 season. That team went on to be ranked No. 1 for two weeks and finished the COVID-shortened year at No. 14. See more on the Cards in the Polls on Page 6.
Currently, six of Louisville's 2025-26 opponents were ranked in the AP Preseason Poll, with four more receiving votes. See more on Page 6.
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 27-0 under Kelsey when leading with five minutes to play. See more on Louisville's record by situation on Page 8.
In Louisville's two exhibitions, Ryan Conwell led the team in scoring with 20.5 ppg over the two contests while sophomore Adrian Wooley logged an average of 6.5 rebounds per game.

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Players Mentioned

Mikel Brown Jr.

Ryan Conwell

Aly Khalifa

Isaac McKneely

Kobe Rodgers

Adrian Wooley

University of Louisville Athletics