Preview: Louisville Welcomes Virginia Tech to KFC Yum! Center

The Cardinals take on the Hokies are a few extra days off.

Louisville Cardinals forward Khani Rooths (9) smiles as he draws the foul as Louisville Cardinals guard Kobe Rodgers (11) celebrates as the Cards are rolling past South Carolina State 71-17 in the second half at the KFC Yum! Center Monday night, Nov. 3, 2025. | Matt Stone/Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Virginia Tech Hokies (14-5, 3-3 ACC) at No. 23 Louisville Cardinals (13-5, 3-3 ACC)

- Tipoff: Saturday, January 24 at 2:15 p.m. EST
- Location: KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Ky.
- How To Watch: The CW Network
- How To Listen: 93.9 FM
- Betting Favorite: Louisville -12.0
- All-Time Series: Louisville Leads 37-12
- Last Meeting: Louisville won 71-66 on Feb. 25, 2025 (Blacksburg, Va.)

Projected Starting Lineups

Louisville

• G Adrian Wooley (6-4, 200, So.)
• G Isaac McKneely (6-4, 195, Sr.)
• G Ryan Conwell (6-4, 215, Sr.)
• F J'Vonne Hadley (6-7, 210, 6th)
• F/C Sananda Fru (6-11, 245, Jr.)

Virginia Tech

• G Ben Hammond (5-11, 170, So.)
• G Jailen Bedford (6-4, 190, Gr.)
• G Neoklis Avdalas (6-9, 215, Fr.)
• F Amani Hansberry (6-5, 210, So.)
• C Christian Gurdak (6-10, 260, Fr.)

Comparison

See how the Cardinals stack up against the Hokies, and who the statistical models favor: Tale of The Tape, Predictions: Louisville vs. Virginia Tech

Game Notes

Louisville

• Louisville men’s basketball will host Virginia Tech on Saturday afternoon at 2:15 p.m., moved up from the original game time due to expected inclement weather in the evening. Louisville most recently dominated at Pitt before having a mid-week bye.
• Louisville head coach Pat Kelsey is 170-66 (.720) all-time in conference play as a head coach.
• Kelsey reached his 300th career win on Jan. 10 with a victory over Boston College. He has now achieved 40 wins as the head coach at UofL.
• Louisville is one of three DI teams with at least five victories of 40 points or more this season, joining Michigan (6) and High Point (6)
• Freshman guard Mikel Brown Jr. was recently named the 2025 USA Basketball Men's Athlete of the Year.
• There were 14 players returning to DI this season that had made at least 175 3-pointers with a career 3-point field goal percentage of 38% or more; Ryan Conwell and Isaac McKneely are two of those 14.
• Louisville is 40-0 under Kelsey when leading with five minutes to play.
• Louisville has had five 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. Louisville is one of six teams in 2025-26 as of Jan. 21 to have five games of at least 24 assists.
• The late great Junior Bridgeman is the sixth player in Louisville men's basketball history to have their jersey number retired. .
• Against Memphis on Dec. 13, Louisville had four different players with at least three 3-pointers apiece for the first time since Nov. 22, 2010 when the Cards played Chattanooga. It was the second time in program history that six different players made multiple 3-pointers, the first time being at WKU on Dec. 22, 2010.
• 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. He notched that stat line against NJIT on Nov. 26.
• 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 was the third team in DI this season to make at least 20 3-pointers against another DI team.
• Both Ryan Conwell and Mikel Brown Jr. represent Louisville on the preseason Naismith Trophy Player of the Year Watch List. Conwell is also on the Lute Olsen Early Season List while Brown is on the Midseason List for the John Wooden Award.
• 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.
• The Cardinals landed two players on the Preseason All-ACC First Team, the only program to do so in 2025. Both Mikel Brown Jr., and Ryan Conwell earned the First Team nod. Louisville was picked second overall in the league by voting media members.
• UofL has three Cardinals on the roster that have scored over 1,000 DI points: Ryan Conwell (1,689), Isaac McKneely (1,305) and J’Vonne Hadley (1,209).
• There are 14 players who returned to DI this season that started the season with at least 175 made 3-pointers with a career 3-point field goal percentage of 38% or more; Ryan Conwell and Isaac McKneely are two of those 14 players.
• Of the 10 players who were on an NCAA DI roster in 2024-25, eight of them were on teams that played in the 2025 NCAA Tournament. The roster has made 14 cumulative NCAA Division I Tournament appearances at their current/previous schools, playing in 10 NCAA Tournament games across their careers.

Virginia Tech

• Last season, Louisville won a five-point contest at Cassell Coliseum which snapped a four-game winning streak in the series for Mike Young and the Hokies. Prior to March of 2022, VT had lost 17 consecutive contests against the Cardinals.
• A win would be a third consecutive one after Tech beat Notre Dame at home and Syracuse on the road on Wednesday night. The last time that VT won three straight ACC games was March of 2024 when the Hokies won the final three regular season contests.
• Last time out: The Hokies walked out of the JMA Wireless Dome 76-74 winners and owners of consecutive ACC wins for the first time this season. Ben Hammond led all scorers with 24 points, his second 20-point game of the season. He went 12-13 from the free throw line where he shoots at 84.9% which is the fifth-best in the league. Hammond’s six steals against Syracuse tie the program record for most in an ACC game. Tobi Lawal recorded his second consecutive double-double with his 16 points and 11 rebounds. Forward Amani Hansberry had another efficient game Wednesday going 5-6 from the field. He’s 11-15 in the last two games.
• In wins this season, the Hokies are averaging 15.2 assists and 9.7 turnovers. In losses those figures are 12.4 and 12.0.
• Since Mike Young got to Blacksburg, the Hokies are 56-5 in contests shooting 50% or better with the only losses: vs. BYU (11/27/19), vs. Miami (1/26/22), at College of Charleston (11/20/22), at Miami (1/31/23), vs. South Carolina (11/10/23). Since the 2010-11 season, Tech is 128-16 when shooting 50% or better.
• Year in and year out, Virginia Tech is known as a great passing and facilitating team under Coach Young’s direction. Three of the past six seasons, Tech has finished among the top-three in the ACC for assists per game.
• Over the last eight seasons, only two Mike Young team have ranked outside the top 65 in the nation for turnovers per game.
• The six core pillars of the Virginia Tech men’s basketball program are: smart, tough, obsessed, no excuses, every day and skilled.
• Tech is 5-3 in one possession games in 2025-26. The Hokies won the first three onepossesion games of the season before hopping into ACC play. Each of their three ACC losses are by three or fewer points. In total Tech has scored five fewer points than their opposition in those three losses.
• The Hokies return just a bit shy of 50% of their scoring from a season ago (46.8%) led by Tobi Lawal’s team-leading 12.4 points per game. Only four of Tech’s 14 players were on the 2024 25 roster: Lawal, Jaden Schutt (7.7 ppg.), Tyler Johnson (6.7) and Ben Hammond (5.6).
• The Hokies attracted three athletes from the transfer portal: Jailen Bedford (UNLV), Izaiah Pasha (Delaware) and Amani Hansberry (West Virginia). The Hokies have 10 newcomers to the squad including seven true freshmen.
• Virginia Tech enters the 2025-26 season with one of the youngest rosters in the ACC, as they bring in seven true freshmen. Among all ACC teams, only Georgia Tech will welcome as many freshmen as Virginia Tech.
• No Hokie on the 2025-26 team has reached the 1,000-point mark in his career yet. Jailen Bedford with 941 is the closest to the milestone, while Tobi Lawal stands at 790
• With 57 ACC wins, Mike Young is second all-time in that category in program history trailing only Seth Greenberg who went 61-67 in the eight seasons that he guided the Hokies in the ACC.
• The Hokies were selected 12th in the ACC’s preseason poll as voted on by the league’s head coaches and media members. Neo Avdalas received one vote to be the ACC’s Preseason Rookie of the Year. Cameron Boozer (Duke) was selected for rookie and player of the year. His Blue Devils were the top choice amongst the voters to win the league.

(Photo of Kobe Rodgers, Khani Rooths and Aly Khalifa: Matt Stone - Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)

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