Less than a month into the Pat Kelsey era, Louisville basketball can bring home some hardware from the Bahamas.
The Cardinals (5-1) will battle Oklahoma (6-0) on tonight in the Bad Boy Mowers Battle 4 Atlantis championship game at Atlantis Paradise Island resort. Tipoff is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.
If you’re just tuning in, U of L is on a four-game winning streak for the first time since Nov. 15-27, 2021. It got here by dominating No. 15 Indiana on Wednesday, then grinding out an overtime victory over West Virginia on Thanksgiving behind a career-high 32 points from senior point guard Chucky Hepburn.
“I’ve been doing this a long time, coached Chris Paul and several other NBA point guards, and that was one of the single most dominant performances on both ends of the floor by a point guard that I’ve ever seen standing on the sidelines as a coach,” Kelsey said after Thursday’s win.
Led by fourth-year coach Porter Moser, Oklahoma went 20-12 (8-10 Big 12) in 2023-24 and was one of the first four teams left out of the NCAA Tournament field. It reached the Battle 4 Atlantis championship by beating Providence in Round 1 and No. 23 Arizona in Round 2.
Louisville is 1-3 all time against the Sooners. It won the most recent meeting, 78-48, on March 23, 2008, in the second round of March Madness.
This is the third time in as many trips to the Battle 4 Atlantis that the Cards have reached its championship game. They did so in 2012 and 2016 but lost to Duke and Baylor, respectively.
Follow along below with live updates:
The game between the Cards and the Sooners will air on ESPN, which is channel 602 on AT&T U-Verse; channel 206 on DirecTV; channel 140 on Dish; and channel 506 on Spectrum.
Dave O’Brien (play-by-play) and Jimmy Dykes (analysis) will be on the call.
If you have cable, you can livestream Louisville’s Battle 4 Atlantis games via the ESPN app or ESPN.com/watch.
If you don’t have cable, you can access ESPN through streaming services such as fuboTV (FREE TRIAL) and YouTube TV (FREE TRIAL).
Jody Demling (play-by-play) and Bob Valvano (analyst) will be on the call for all three of U of L’s Battle 4 Atlantis games on the Cardinal Sports Network (WLCL 93.9-FM and WGTK 970-AM in Louisville).
You can also listen online via GoCards.com.
Betting odds: Louisville is a 3.5-point favorite (-105) on BetMGM, which set the over/under at 149.5 points (-110). The money line odds are: U of L -165, Oklahoma +135.
Score predictions: KenPom.com gives U of L a 54% chance of winning and projects an 74-73 final score in its favor. BartTorvik.com is also forecasting a Cards victory (55%), with a projected final score of 77-76.
Note: All game times are Eastern.
Check out the complete Battle 4 Atlantis bracket below:
Follow the instructions below to submit a question to our Louisville basketball mailbag:
Questions can also be submitted via email (bholton@gannett.com) and X, formerly Twitter, to @brooksHolton.
Click here to view the Sooners’ 2024-25 schedule.
Click here to view the Sooners’ 2024-25 roster.
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Reach Louisville men’s basketball reporter Brooks Holton at bholton@gannett.com and follow him on X at @brooksHolton.
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