The 2025–26 Louisville Cardinals men's basketball team represented the University of Louisville during the 2025–26 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The team played its home games on Denny Crum Court at the KFC Yum! Center in downtown Louisville, Kentucky as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). They were led by second-year head coach Pat Kelsey.

The Cardinals began the season with seven straight wins, which saw them rise from eleventh in the AP poll to sixth. The run included two games against Power 4 opponents. The first was a 96–88 victory over rivals and ninth-ranked Kentucky. The second was a ten-point win over rivals Cincinnati. Their streak was broken in the ACC–SEC Challenge at twenty-fifth ranked Arkansas, where they lost by nine points. The team followed the loss with a victory in the CareSource Invitational over twenty-second ranked Indiana. The win was not enough to prevent them from sliding back to eleventh in the AP poll. They defeated rivals Memphis 99–73 before losing 62–83 at twentieth-ranked Tennessee. The Cardinals defeated Montana before falling to sixteenth in the AP poll to begin ACC play. They went 2–3 in their first five games, winning the opener at California and defeating Boston College but losing to sixth-ranked Duke, sixteenth-ranked Virginia, and at Stanford. The team went 5–1 over their next six games, with the only loss coming to fourth-ranked Duke. On February 9, 2026, Mikel Brown Jr. broke the ACC Freshman scoring record and tied the Louisville program 59-year scoring record with 45 points in a 118–77 win against NC State. Ryan Conwell added 31 points marking the first 30-point scoring duo in program history. Despite the winning streak, the Cardinals feel to twenty fourth in the AP poll by the end of the run. They defeated Baylor 82–71 at a neutral site to move up to twenty-first, but lost three of their next four games to fall out of the rankings. They only defeated Georgia Tech while losing at SMU, at Clemson, and at eighteenth-ranked North Carolina. They finished their regular season with defeats of Syracuse and twenty-second ranked Miami.

The Cardinals finished the season 24–11 overall and 11–7 in ACC play to finish in a sixth place. As the sixth seed in the 2026 ACC tournament, they earned a bye into the Second Round where they defeated SMU by four points. Their run ended there as they lost to Miami in a re-match of their final regular season game. The Cardinals earned an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament and were the six-seed in the East region. They defeated eleven-seed South Florida in the First Round before losing to third-seed and eleventh ranked Michigan State in the Second Round to end their season.

Previous season The Cardinals finished the 2024–25 season with a record of 27–8, 18–2 in ACC play, finishing in a tie for 2nd place. As the second seed in the 2025 ACC tournament they earned a bye into Quarterfinals where they defeated seventh seed Stanford for the second time in five days. The tournament game was much closer as the Cardinals advanced 75–73. In the Semifinals they defeated third seed and tenth-ranked Clemson 76–73. They lost to first seed and top ranked Duke 73–62 in the final. They received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament as a No. 8 seed, where they lost in the first round to Creighton.

Offseason Departures DeparturesJames Scott0C6'11"210SophomoreFayetteville, NCTransferred to Ole MissKoren Johnson3G6'2"175JuniorSeattle, WATransferred to Ole MissReyne Smith6G6'2"190SeniorUlverstone, AustraliaGraduatedPatrick Antonelly12G5'11"1705thMount Pleasant, SCGraduatedFrank Anselem-Ibe13C6'10"2205thLagos, NigeriaGraduatedChucky Hepburn24G6'2"190SeniorOmaha, NEGraduated and signed two-way NBA contract with the Toronto RaptorsAidan McCool33G6'3"170Graduate StudentCharleston, SCGraduatedNoah Waterman93F6'11"2306thSavannah, NYGraduated and signed professional overseas deal by the Yamagata Wyverns.

Incoming transfers Incoming transfers Ryan Conwell 3 G 6'4" 215 SeniorIndianapolis, INXavier Isaac McKneely 10 G 6'4" 195 SeniorPoca, WVVirginia Adrian Wooley 14 G 6'5" 200 SophomoreTuscaloosa, ALKennesaw State

2025 recruiting class

Roster

Schedule and results

!colspan=9 style=""| Exhibition

!colspan=9 style=""| Regular season

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Schedule Source:

Rankings

Awards and honors

ACC Player of the WeekWeekDatePlayerPositionRef. Week 2 November 17, 2025 Mikel Brown Jr. Guard Week 15 February 16, 2026 Mikel Brown Jr. Guard

ACC Rookie of the WeekWeekDatePlayerPositionRef. Week 2 November 17, 2025 Mikel Brown Jr. Guard Week 15 February 16, 2026 Mikel Brown Jr. Guard

References