LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Pat Kelsey hasn't made any "all the smoke" pronouncements this offseason, but he's steadily building a schedule that should provide plenty of heat for his highly anticipated Louisville basketball team.
In addition to the annual rivalry matchup with Kentucky and a preseason trip to face Kansas — where transfer big man Flory Bidunga will see his old team on Oct. 21 at Allen Fieldhouse — Louisville is set to play Texas Tech in the Players Era Tournament in Las Vegas on Thanksgiving week, with a win potentially setting up a matchup against former coach Rick Pitino and St. John's.
The Cardinals will also host Texas in the SEC/ACC Challenge on Dec. 1. And on Thursday, word broke of a two-game series with defending national champion Michigan with the opener Dec. 5 in Detroit and a return game the following season in Indianapolis, according to Jeff Goodman of Field of 68, who first reported it.
It's a schedule replacement of sorts; Michigan's home-and-home with Duke to be televised by Amazon had fallen through.
Louisville doesn't play Michigan often, but all three meetings this century have been games of consequence. The Cardinals beat the Wolverines for the 2013 national title, lost to them in the second round of the 2017 NCAA Tournament in what turned out to be Pitino's final game as Louisville's coach, and most recently beat them 58-43 in 2019, the Cardinals' first game after climbing to No. 1 under Chris Mack.
This time, Michigan arrives with a new coach of its own. Dusty May left for the Dallas Mavericks job after cutting down the nets, and Mike Boynton Jr. — hired July 10 — inherits a Wolverines team that went 37-3 last season against the toughest schedule in the country.
Picking up the game is yet another indication of Kelsey's belief in his current roster, led by Bidunga and Oregon transfer Jackson Shelstad. The Cardinals have signed one of the most expensive rosters in the nation, and sit at No. 13 nationally in the most recent “way too early” Top 25 compiled by ESPN's Jeff Borzello.
Michigan is at No. 5 nationally in that ranking, released at the beginning of the month, bumped down two spots from No. 3 after the departure of May. It welcomed the No. 2 ranked recruiting class in the nation after last season's championship, and has lost only one piece following the departure of May.
Point guard L.J. Cason transferred to Miami, but the rest of the roster has been retained, including Elliot Cadeau, the Final Four's Most Outstanding Player, and Cincinnati transfer Moustapha Thiam.
A year ago, Kelsey beefed up Louisville's non-conference schedule following a worse-than-expected No. 8 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Last season, the Cards fared better in the seeding process and did win their first NCAA Tournament game since 2017, though some of the big names on the schedule did not pack their usual rankings punch by season's end.
This year, Duke again expects to be a top-three team. Kentucky is in the national rankings mix, while Michigan is top five in early projections and Texas No. 7, with St. John's No. 8. In the ACC, North Carolina, Miami and Virginia all figure to be ranked before the season.
Louisville is expected to release its full schedule in the coming weeks.
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