A third high caliber nonconference game on IU basketball’s 2025-26 schedule has been reported.
Indiana and Louisville will play at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on Dec. 6, Jeff Goodman of Field of 68 is reporting.
Led by new coach Darian DeVries, Indiana already has challenging out of league games set against Marquette in Chicago on Nov. 9, and at Kentucky on Dec. 20. Both of those were in place before DeVries arrived. Now the Louisville game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse will end up being at least the third high-major foe on the nonconference slate.
At his introductory press conference last month, DeVries seemed to welcome the idea of playing stiff competition in November and December.
“Big Ten conference play, we got 20 of those games, so you’ve got to get yourself ready for it, and we want to challenge ourselves in the best way possible to make sure we’ve got some very meaningful non-conference games,” DeVries said.
“You have to do a good job of — you’ve got to get your home games, as well, but also make sure we do a great job of getting ourselves ready for Big Ten play and challenging ourselves before we start that.”
Under first year coach Pat Kelsey, Louisville was one of the better turnarounds in college basketball. He took over the Cardinals after an 8-24 season, completely rebuilt the roster, and finished 27-8 in year one.
Indiana and Louisville have played each of the last two seasons, but surprisingly not much overall given their close proximity to one another.
IU has a 12-10 all-time series lead over Louisville after the Cards dismantled the Hoosiers at the Battle 4 Atlantis in The Bahamas last November, 89-61. Indiana rallied for a 74-66 win over Kenny Payne’s Cardinals the prior year at the Empire Classic in New York.
For all known future IU basketball games, GO HERE:
For complete coverage of IU basketball, GO HERE.
The Daily Hoosier –“Where Indiana fans assemble when they’re not at Assembly”
- You can follow us on Twitter: @daily_hoosier
- Find us on Facebook and Instagram
- Seven ways to support completely free IU coverage at no cost to you.
