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.
We occasionally recommend interesting products and services. If you make a purchase by clicking one of the links, we may earn an affiliate fee. USA TODAY Network newsrooms operate independently, and this doesn’t influence our coverage.
Reach Louisville men’s basketball reporter Brooks Holton at bholton@gannett.com and follow him on X at @brooksHolton.
Arizona was ready to turn the page on their tough two-game stretch against Wisconsin and Duke that resulted in the Wildcats almost falling out of the top 25.Whi
Oklahoma has its first island trophy.The Sooners stayed unbeaten on Friday with a 69-64 victory over Louisville in the championship game of the Battle 4 Atlanti
Speaking with ESPN before his Louisville basketball team tipped off against Oklahoma in the Bad Boy Mowers Battle 4 Atlantis championship game, head coach Pat
Purdue's Matt Painter on 71-61 win over N.C. StateThe Boilermaker coach on a scrappy performance in another first-round win in an in-season tournament.The Purdu