Louisville basketball just secured its first ACC win of the 2025-26 season, and the Cards did it in dominant fashion. Every punch Cal threw at Louisville, the Cardinals had a response, and whether that was Adrian Wooley, Ryan Conwell, or someone else, this Cardinals team showed why they can make a run in late March.
Louisville defeated Cal 90-70 on Jan. 30 on the road, earning its first official road win of the season. They also did it without starting point guard Mikel Brown Jr., as the former 5-star commit and No. 1 PG in the 2025 class missed his third consecutive game with back pain. Louisville now improves to 11-2 on the season and looks to make its second consecutive run in the ACC.
Entering the season, Louisville was one of the top two teams in the ACC, and as we are now in conference play, it appears the Vegas oddsmakers still believe this conference is set to be a two-headed race.
Louisville basketball updated ACC Title odds
Entering the 2025-26 season, Louisville had +2000 odds to win the 2026 National Championship and +220 odds to win the ACC Title. Following the Cards' win over No. 9 Kentucky, they reached a season-high +1600 to win it all and +165 to win the ACC.
However, since that game, the Cards are 1-2 against ranked opponents, which has caused their odds to dip slightly. The Cards have responded strongly to their two losses, defeating No. 22 Indiana at the time and now earning a 40-point win over Montana and a 20-point win over Cal to start their ACC games. Louisville’s ACC Title odds are now +230, only behind Duke at -110, according to FanDuel.
The next closest team is Virginia at +1200. Louisville had a historic conference run last year, earning its most ACC wins in a single season, and Kelsey led this team to their most conference wins in a regular season. On top of that, Louisville went to the program's first ACC Championship game, and now they seek revenge this year and will try and steal that ACC Title from Duke.
The Cards are eyeing history this season and are trying to take that next step and win their first ACC regular season Title and first ACC Tournament Title, and yesterday’s win was the first step in that direction. It is going to be a long season, but Louisville’s 20-point win on the road against a 12-1 Golden Bears is a good sign to the fans that this Louisville team is special and has what it takes to make history.
Louisville went 0-2 against Duke last year, including the loss to the Blue Devils in the ACC Championship game. The two will face off twice in the regular season, with both games coming in January, including next Tuesday on Jan. 6 at KFC Yum! Center.
For all the latest on Louisville basketball's 2025-26 season and recruiting, stay tuned.