IU basketball 2025-26 non-conference opponent preview: Louisville

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IU basketball’s 2025-26 non-conference schedule was finalized on July 1 and Inside the Hall will have a team-by-team look at each opponent. Today: Louisville.

The Darian DeVries era in Bloomington will tip off with a challenging non-conference schedule. With four high-major opponents on the slate, including two neutral-site battles and a true road game, the Hoosiers will be tested early. This mini-series on IU’s non-conference opponents for next season will examine the four high-major opponents and review the rest of the schedule.

Previously: Marquette, Kansas State

Today: Louisville (27-8 overall, 18-2 in conference play in 2024-25)

After 25 wins across three seasons between Chris Mack’s final season and two years of the Kenny Payne experiment, Louisville brought in Pat Kelsey and he completely turned the program around in year one. The Cardinals rolled through ACC play, losing two of their three total conference games to Duke, but exited the NCAA tournament in the first round to Creighton. Still, Kelsey has set Louisville up for big success shortly.

Louisville roster outlook

It will be a rematch from last year’s blowout in the Battle 4 Atlantis, when Louisville crushed Indiana 89-61, but neither team looks similar to last season. The Cardinals have a trio of key rotational pieces returning, plus one of the top overall recruiting classes in the country.

J’Vonne Hadley is Louisville’s top returner entering his sixth season. The 6-foot-6 guard averaged 12.2 points, a team-high 7.3 rebounds and 1.8 assists on shooting splits of 51.8 percent from the floor and 38.1 percent from deep.

Forward Khani Rooths was a 4-star recruit in 2024 and played all 35 games last year. In 13.4 minutes per game, he averaged 3.3 points and three rebounds, shooting 39.3 percent and 23.1 percent from 3-point range. Per Louisville’s team site, Rooths now stands at 6-foot-10 compared to his 6-foot-8 listing last year.

Kasean Pryor is perhaps the most intriguing returnee if healthy. The energetic 6-foot-10 forward averaged 12 points, 6.1 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 1.6 steals and 1.1 blocks in 23.3 minutes per contest but played just seven games before a season-ending ACL tear in November.

Despite just three incoming transfers, the quality of the class resulted in the No. 3 transfer ranking at 247Sports.

Kennesaw State transfer guard Adrian Wooley is rated as the top get for Kelsey at No. 9 in the transfer rankings. As a freshman, Wooley produced 18.8 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game on shooting splits of 51.2 percent and 42.2 percent from long distance.

Xavier transfer Ryan Conwell – who was heavily pursued by IU – is the No. 14 ranked transfer prospect. Last season, Conwell averaged 16.5 points, 2.7 rebounds and 2.5 assists while shooting 45 percent from the floor and 41.3 percent on triples with 7.1 attempts on average.

Virginia transfer Isaac McNeely is the No. 20 transfer in the country. In a slow-paced Cavaliers offense, he still averaged 14.4 points, 2.7 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game. The sharpshooter was 43.9 percent overall and 42.1 percent from 3-point range on 7.5 attempts per game.

Kelsey’s high school class comes in at No. 20 at 247Sports. The four-man class is made up of three international prospects, most notably top-100 German forward Sananda Fru.

Top-10 guard Mikel Brown Jr. is the star of the class, however. Brown is highly skilled with the ball in his hands and recently helped Team USA win a gold medal at the FIBA U19 World Cup, leading the team in points (14.9) and assists (6.1) in just 23.2 minutes per game.

The matchup

Like Indiana’s first two Power 5 non-conference opponents, and like the Hoosiers themselves, Louisville is a guard-heavy squad. It’s hard to judge how Kelsey will operate his rotations and who will start, given that the Cardinals have five starter-level guards.

Defending the 3-point line and staying in front of the ball will be crucial for Indiana. Given all three Cardinal transfers are 40-plus percent distance shooters and Hadley is capable as well, plus the explosiveness of Wooley and Brown, the Hoosiers will need to be sharp rotating on help defense. Tayton Conerway’s on-ball pressure could be disruptive to Louisville’s offense.

All signs point towards the Cardinals being favored in the neutral-site contest. Louisville sits just outside the top-10 of Bart Torvik’s 2026 projections and currently projects to be inside the top-5 of adjusted offensive efficiency.

Indiana and Louisville will face off at 2 p.m. on Dec. 6 inside Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. The game will be televised on CBS.

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