IU Basketball game day essentials: Indiana faces Louisville in Battle 4 Atlantis opener

Game Day Essentials:

Louisville (3-1) vs. No. 14/15 Indiana (4-0)

• Tip Time: Wednesday, Noon Eastern
• Location: Imperial Ballroom • Paradise Islands, The Bahamas
• Television: ESPN (Beth Mowins, Debbie Antonelli)
• Radio: IU Radio Network (Don Fischer, Errek Suhr, John Herrick)
• Stream: ESPN
• Point Spread:  Indiana is a 2.5 point favorite
• KenPom Projected Score:  Indiana 77  Louisville 74
• History: Indiana leads the series, 12-9.
• Last Meeting: IU 74, UL 66 on Nov. 20, 2023 in New York

Battle 4 Atlantis Bracket

More Coverage

• IU basketball: Here’s the Battle 4 Atlantis full schedule and bracket for this week
• Louisville coach, former IU fan Pat Kelsey, Cardinals guard Chucky Hepburn on Indiana
• Reasons for optimism, causes for concern as IU basketball tips crucial week in The Bahamas
• Watch: Woodson, Galloway and Ballo preview Battle 4 Atlantis in The Bahamas

Louisville’s Pat Kelsey

Pat Kelsey was named head coach of the University of Louisville’s men’s basketball program in March 2024 and is serving his first season at the helm.

Kelsey had an impressive showing at Winthrop and Charleston before being made head coach for the Cardinals. Across nine seasons at Winthrop from 2012 to 2021, Kelsey led the Eagles to two NCAA tournament appearances and an overall record of 186-95. His best year came in his last season, where Winthrop finished with a 23-2 overall record and finished atop of the Big South. Kelsey won four regular-season Big South championships and three conference tournament championships during his tenure.

Before Louisville, Kelsey was most recently the head coach at Charleston and led an impressive three-season turnaround. After finishing eighth in the CAA in his first season, Kelsey won regular-season conference championships in back-to-back seasons and appeared in the NCAA tournament both times. Kelsey finished with a 75-27 overall record across three seasons. He won CAA Coach of the Year in 2024.

Louisville’s results and roster:

Louisville Game Notes (from Louisville Athletics)

•  Louisville has played in the Battle 4 Atlantis twice before and has a 6-2 on-court record in the in-season tournament. The Cardinals made it to the championship game in both 2012 and 2016, but fell to Duke 76 71 and Baylor 66-63, respectively, in those contests.
• Seven of the previous 21 meetings between Louisville and Indiana came with Denny Crum and Bobby Knight at the helm of their programs; UofL logging a 4-3 edge in that time.
• As of Nov. 24, Louisville is sixth in the country in three point attempts per game (34.0), seventh in turnovers forced per game (19.0) and 14th in the country in turnover margin (6.8).
• 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.
• Louisville’s 48 first-half points against Bellarmine on Nov. 19 were the most since leading Eastern Kentucky 50-32 at halftime on Dec. 14, 2019.
• The 48-point victory over Morehead State on Nov. 4 was Louisville’s largest margin of victory since a 104 54 win vs. Southern on Nov. 13, 2018, and largest in a season opener since a 92-38 win vs. South Alabama on Nov. 18, 2001.
• Louisville was selected ninth in the ACC Preseason Media Poll.
• The Cardinals received four votes in the preseason AP Poll released on October 14. That is the first time Louisville has received votes in a national poll since Nov. 29, 2021.
• Louisville has the chance to play eight ranked teams all before January 2, including three teams in the Battle 4 Atlantis.
• Louisville has 11 players who were on teams that played in the 2024 NCAA Tournament. The roster in total has made 14 NCAA Division I Tournament appearances at their previous schools, playing in 20 NCAA Tournament games across their careers.
• Head coach Pat Kelsey has won 11 total conference championships across his 261-122 career record, including four NCAA Tournament bids. Kelsey has recorded winning seasons in 11 of his 12 complete seasons as a head coach.
• Louisville is one of 5 programs in the country returning 0% in scoring, rebounding and minutes played; the Cardinals are joined by DePaul, IU Indy, Iona and Kentucky.

OG’s Pick:

Once again, I’ll keep track of my scoring predictions throughout Indiana’s season for fun.

Win/Loss Prediction: 4-0

Perfect Predictions: 0

Another tough one to call. On one hand, we have a common opponent to look at with Tennessee, although Indiana’s win was in a preseason exhibition. By contrast, Louisville has certainly looked like a competitive team, but much like Indiana, it comes in spurts. The neutral site should be just that, but I would give a slight crowd advantage to Indiana.

Louisville loves to shoot the three. They have the second-highest attempted rate in the country, per KenPom, but their percentage isn’t the best. The Hoosiers are also holding opponents to 27 percent from three. For me, it’s going to come down to whether Indiana can contest the outside shot and limit Louisville’s second chance opportunities. I say it’s a tight battle where neither team pulls away until the under-8 timeout in the second half.

PICK: Indiana 75 – Louisville 67

For complete coverage of IU basketball, GO HERE.    

The Daily Hoosier –“Where Indiana fans assemble when they’re not at Assembly”

• Find us on Facebook:  thedailyhoosier
• You can follow us on Twitter:  @daily_hoosier
• Seven ways to support completely free IU coverage at no cost to you.