Happy Thanksgiving. Would you like a second helping of Louisville basketball?
Pat Kelsey‘s Cardinals (4-1), fresh off a blowout win over No. 15 Indiana on Wednesday, need one victory to advance to the Bad Boy Mowers Battle 4 Atlantis championship game.
Standing in their way: West Virginia (4-1), which took down No. 4 Gonzaga in overtime, 86-78, in the second game of the eight-team tournament at Atlantis Paradise Island resort in the Bahamas.
“We had to turn the page to the next game the moment we walked out of that locker room,” Kelsey said after the Cards obliterated the Hoosiers, 89-61. “We’re going to play a big-time, heavy-hitting team tomorrow at noon.”
U of L is 9-4 all time against the Mountaineers. It won the most recent meeting, 77-74, on Feb. 11, 2012, in Morgantown.
Like Louisville, WVU also has a first-year coach, Darian DeVries — who took over the program after six seasons at Drake — and a roster overhauled primarily through the NCAA transfer portal. Senior guard Javon Small, who spent the 2023-24 campaign at Oklahoma State, leads the team in scoring with 18.6 points per game and went for 31 on 50% shooting while playing 43 minutes of Wednesday’s win over Gonzaga.
Follow along below with live updates:
Here are Louisville’s starters:
Here are West Virginia’s starters:
Junior guard Koren Johnson will miss his third consecutive game due to an undisclosed shoulder injury, William McDermott of the Louisville Sports Network announced during the pregame radio show.
Senior forward Aboubacar Traore is also sidelined for multiple weeks with a broken left arm.
U of L moved from a 2.5-point to a 3.5-point favorite (-115) over West Virginia on BetMGM, which set the over/under at 150.5 points (over: -115, under: -105). The money line odds are: U of L -185, WVU +150.
The officials for today’s game are: Tony Padilla, Jeb Hartness and Chris Pacsi.
The noon tipoff between the Cards and the Mountaineers 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.
Beth Mowins (play-by-play) and Debbie Antonelli (analyst) 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 (-115) on BetMGM, which set the over/under at 150.5 points (over: -115, under: -105). The money line odds are: U of L -185, WVU +150.
Score predictions: KenPom.com gives U of L a 59% chance of winning and projects an 74-72 final score in its favor. BartTorvik.com is also forecasting a Cards victory (56%), 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 Mountaineers’ 2024-25 schedule.
Click here to view the Mountaineers’ 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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