IU basketball game essentials: Hoosiers face Louisville in Indianapolis

Game Day Essentials:

No. 19/22 Indiana (7-1) vs. No. 6/6 Louisville (7-1)

• Tip Time:  2:15 p.m. Eastern, Saturday
• Location: Gainbridge Fieldhouse (20,000), Indianapolis, Ind.
• Television: CBS (Tom McCarthy, Clark Kellog, Robbie Hummel)
• Radio: IU Radio Network (Don Fischer, Errek Suhr, John Herrick)
• Stream: Paramount
• Point Spread:  Louisville is a 5.5-point favorite
• KenPom Projected Score:  Indiana 78  Louisville 82
• History: Indiana leads the series, 12-10
• Last Meeting: UofL 89, IU 61 on Nov. 27, 2024, in The Bahamas
• Tickets (via our StubHub affiliate link)

Louisville’s Pat Kelsey

Pat Kelsey remains one of the most impressive coaches in college basketball’s recent history. After a 27-8 start and an NCAA Tournament appearance in his first season at Louisville, Kelsey was honored with ACC Coach of the Year in his first season in the conference. In 14 seasons in Division 1, Kelsey has compiled a 295-131 overall record.

Kelsey began his coaching career at Winthrop at 36 years old and enjoyed a lengthy stint with the Eagles. After his first season, Kelsey did not finish worse than third in the Big South and won the conference regular season four times. In his final season, Kelsey won Big South Coach of the Year, leading Winthrop to a 23-2 overall record, a Big South regular season and tournament title, and an NCAA Tournament appearance.

Kelsey left Winthrop to coach Charleston in 2021 and led a quick turnaround in just three seasons. After finishing 17-15 in his opening year, Kelsey followed that with two consecutive CAA titles and two NCAA Tournament appearances. Kelsey’s two teams combined went 58-12 from 2022 to 2024. In the Spring of 2024, Kelsey was announced as the next head coach of Louisville’s program.

Louisville’s results and roster

Louisville’s Game Notes (via Louisville Athletics)

CARDINAL NOTES

• Louisville netted 20 3-pointers against NJIT on Nov. 26, the second-most made 3’s in a single game in program history. It’s just the second time ever the Cardinals have made at least 20 3’s in a game. UofL is the third team in DI this season to make at least 20 3-pointers against another DI team.
• Louisville’s back-to-back 40-point wins (87-46 over Eastern Michigan & 104-47 over NJIT) is the program’s first set of back-to-back 40-point victories since 2012-13.
• Senior guard Ryan Conwell is the only DI men’s basketball player since at least 2010-11 to log at least 32 points, nine rebounds and six assists in 24 minutes or less, according to Sports Reference.
• Louisville has had two games of at least 24 assists, the first time since 2010-11 that the program has had multiple games of 24+ assists; the Cardinals had five games of at 24+ assists that season.

AWARDED BY THE ACC

• Freshman guard Mikel Brown Jr. was named ACC Co-Player and Co-Rookie of the Week on Nov. 17 after averaging 24.0 ppg, 6.0 apg and shooting 48.1% from the floor in Louisville’s two Week 2 victories – a 96- 88 win over Kentucky and 106-81 win over Ohio.

POURING IT IN

• UofL has three Cardinals on the roster that have scored over 1,000 DI points: Ryan Conwell (1,509), Isaac McKneely (1,186) and J’Vonne Hadley (1,092). There are three additional Cards that have scored between 500 and 1,000 in their DI careers: Aly Khalifa (820), Adrian Wooley (688) and Kasean Pryor (537). Hadley, Conwell, McKneely and Khalifa have all played at least 2,000 minutes at the DI level. Kobe Rodgers has played four seasons between the DI and DII levels and has combined for 901 points in his career.

No. 13 Louisville’s KenPom notable numbers:

(out of 365 teams)

Tempo – No. 47 (Offense No. 10 / Defense No. 246)

Offensive Efficiency – No. 4

• Louisville’s effective field goal percentage is at 56.8 percent (No. 37). The Cardinals are shooting 35.3 percent from three (No. 111) and 61.4 percent on twos (No. 17).
• UofL is a very heavy three-point shooting team. Their three-point attempt rate is at 54.3 percent, which this the third most in Division 1. Threes also account for 40 percent of the team’s points (No. 23).
• Louisville also assists on a high rate of their made field goals with a 63.5 percent rate (No. 19).
• The Cardinals do a lot of the intangibles on offense well. They limit turnovers with a 14 percent rate (No. 30) and gather offensive rebounds at 36.8 percent (No. 45).

Defensive Efficiency – No. 36

• Opponents are shooting a 42.7 percent effective field goal percentage against Louisville (No. 13). Teams are shooting 29.2 percent from three (No. 51) and 41.7 percent from two (No. 7).
• Teams are middle of the road (39.7%, No. 180) in terms of getting off threes as a percentage of total shots vs. Louisville.
• Louisville fouls a bit too much, but it hasn’t been a major issue.  Teams have achieved an opposing free throw rate (FTA/FGA) of 34.9%, which is the 100th-highest nationally.
• Turnovers and offensive rebounds haven’t been an issue for the Cardinals. They force turnovers at a 19.3 percent rate (No. 91) and allow offensive rebounds at 26.1 percent (No. 44).

OG’s Pick

Overall: 7-1

Well, it was bound to happen at some point.

Indiana played a very uncharacteristically bad offensive game against Minnesota last time out, but that’s not necessarily a tell of what IU will look like against high-major competition. Ultimately, the Hoosiers had plenty of chances to knock down shots and get themselves out of that bind.

Because of that, I am not going to pump the brakes and have Indiana lose this game by double-digits. In fact, I do think this will be a closer game that comes down to who can hold the other team down defensively. I’ve really liked how the Hoosiers have been able to limit offenses so far, and if they can slow Louisville’s offense and at least keep it close on the glass, they have every opportunity to win.

I can’t bring myself to pick them in this game, but I think it’ll be a much closer bout than what people may think.

PICK: Indiana 71 – Louisville 73

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