Louisville’s Pat Kelsey breaks down win over Eastern Michigan
Louisville’s Pat Kelsey says Aly Khalifa’s 3-point shooting “puts fear in other coaches and opponents’ mind” when scouting the Cards.
- Louisville basketball went 2-0 last week with lopsided wins over Eastern Michigan and NJIT.
- Up next for Pat Kelsey’s Cardinals: a pair of ranked opponents, Arkansas and Indiana.
- Where does UofL rank in the new AP Top 25 and USA TODAY Coaches Poll released Monday? Find out below.
Where is Louisville basketball ranked in the latest top-25 polls entering the toughest stretch of its nonconference schedule?
Pat Kelsey’s Cardinals (7-0) fell from No. 5 to No. 6 in the the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll after last week’s lopsided wins over Eastern Michigan and NJIT at the KFC Yum! Center. For a third consecutive week, they ranked sixth in the AP Top 25.
Purdue remained the country’s consensus No. 1. Michigan jumped four spots in both polls, to No. 2 in the Coaches and No. 3 in the AP, after its dominant run at the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas. Arizona took second in the AP, while Duke and UConn rounded out the top five in both.
Up next for the Cards: their first true road test of the season, a 7 p.m. tipoff Wednesday at Arkansas’ Bud Walton Arena in the ACC/SEC Challenge. After the grudge match against John Calipari and Kenny Payne, they’ll travel to Indianapolis for a 2 p.m. tipoff Saturday against cross-state rival Indiana at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
The Razorbacks (5-2) and Hoosiers (7-0) ranked 23rd and 19th, respectively, in the new Coaches Poll. They were 25th and 22nd, respectively, in the AP.
Arkansas is coming off an 80-71 loss to Duke on Thanksgiving at the United Center in Chicago, during which it led by as many as seven points with 9:34 to play in regulation. The Hogs started the week 36th on KenPom.com’s adjusted efficiency rankings.
IU, meanwhile, will play its first Big Ten game under new coach Darian DeVries on Wednesday at Minnesota before this weekend’s matchup in Indianapolis. The Hoosiers entered the week ranked 19th on KenPom.
Monday marked the first day of NET rankings — the primary tool used to determine the selection and seeding of teams for the NCAA Tournament. Louisville ranked ninth overall and second in the ACC, trailing only Duke (No. 2), entering this stretch of back-to-back Quad 1 games.
The Cards finished Year 1 of the Kelsey era ranked 28th in the NET after their first-round March Madness exit.
With N.C. State going 1-2 at the Maui Invitational, the ACC had only three teams in this week’s top-25 polls: Duke, UofL and North Carolina — No. 17 in the Coaches, No. 16 in the AP.
Eight of the 18 conference members started the season among the top 50 in the NET, and 14 were in the top 100 — a step in the right direction after half of the league finished 2024-25 outside of the top 100.
Reach Louisville men’s basketball reporter Brooks Holton at bholton@gannett.com and follow him on X at @brooksHolton.
