Louisville basketball fans just learned Friday morning that the Cardinals are scheduled to play the Texas Longhorns on Tuesday, Dec. 1. Louisville now knows a handful of its non-conference opponents, as the Longhorns are the second SEC team on Louisville’s schedule, and the Cards also have learned that Louisville will play Kentucky on Dec. 12.
Louisville basketball lands massive ACC/SEC Challenge showdown with projected top-10 team
The Cardinals' showdowns with Kentucky and Texas will be two massive games, as they will give Louisville a couple of chances to make a statement. Both Kentucky and Texas are trending toward likely top-25 teams when the season begins, and by December, both programs have a high chance of being ranked when the Cards play them.
Looking at Texas, this game could give Louisville a massive opportunity to redeem itself from last season, as Pat Kelsey and the Cardinals try to improve against ranked opponents.
Pat Kelsey gets ideal test as Louisville looks to break troubling trend
The Cardinals have had two successful seasons under Kelsey, as he led Louisville back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019, and this past season, the Cardinals earned their first NCAA Tournament win since 2017. However, Louisville wasn’t too successful this past season against ranked opponents.
In the 2025-26 season, Louisville went 3-7 against ranked teams, 1-6 against the final top 25 rankings, and 0-4 against teams ranked in the top 15. When looking deeper into these games, the Cardinals were consistently down big as well, and in some cases, suffered ugly losses.
In the six losses against the final top 25, Louisville lost by an average of 14.8 points, which included a 31-point loss to Duke and a 21-point loss to Tennessee. And in those other four games, Louisville was down 20 to Arkansas, 15 to Virginia, 14 to Duke (in its 11-point loss), 13 to Michigan State, and 9 to Miami.
So, now the Cardinals get Texas at home, and Louisville is hoping for a better outcome than last year, when they went up against top-15 teams. Texas is ranked No. 8 in CBS Sports' way-too-early rankings and is ranked anywhere from No. 7 to No. 14 in other rankings.
So, this is going to be a huge opportunity and a massive test for the Cardinals to try and redeem themselves from last year and prove they are a legitimate Final Four contender and can win these big-time games.
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