Louisville men’s basketball announced a home-and-home series on Thursday with Tennessee starting in the first year of the Pat Kelsey era.
The Cardinals will host the Volunteers on Saturday, November 9, at KFC Yum! Center. They will next visit Knoxville for a game at Thompson-Boling Arena at the Food City Center on December 16, 2025.
This season’s game will be U of L’s first against UT since a 92-81 loss on Nov. 21, 2018, in the NIT Season Tip-Off in Brooklyn. The Cards were on a five-game winning streak in the series before this matchup.
Louisville has a 12-8 advantage over Tennessee since 1913.
The Cards lost six straight games to the Vols to start the series, but have won 12 of the last 14. They are 5-5 at home against UT, 5-1 on the road and 2-2 at neutral sites.
2024-25 Louisville basketball schedule: What we know
This season’s game against Tennessee will be the second of Kelsey’s tenure.
U of L will open the 2024-25 campaign on Nov. 4 against Morehead State at Yum! Center, second a report by Rocco Miller of Bracketeer.org.
Two weeks after playing the Vols, the Cards will host Winthrop, which was Kelsey’s first stop as head coach, on Friday, Nov. 22, according to a report from Made For March on X, formerly Twitter.
From there, Louisville will travel to the Bahamas to compete in the Bad Boy Mowers Battle 4 Atlantis, which takes place November 27-29 at the Atlantis Paradise Island resort. The matchups have not yet been revealed, but the tournament field includes Arizona, Davidson, Gonzaga, Indiana, Oklahoma, Providence and West Virginia.
Then there’s the annual rivalry game against Kentucky. According to a report by Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports, will be Saturday, December 14th at Rupp Arena.
In terms of ACC play, the Cards will have home-and-home series against Florida State, Pittsburgh and Virginia. They will host California, Clemson, Duke, Miami, North Carolina, Stanford and Wake Forest and face Boston College, Georgia Tech, NC State, Notre Dame, SMU, Syracuse and Virginia Tech on the road.
Contact Louisville men’s basketball reporter Brooks Holton at bholton@gannett.com and follow him on the X at @brooksHolton.
This article originally appeared in the Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville, Tennessee Basketball Ready to Begin Home and Home Series
