2024–25 Louisville Cardinals men's basketball team

2024–25 Louisville Cardinals men's basketball
Conference	Atlantic Coast Conference
Ranking
AP	No. 25
Record	15–5 (8–1 ACC)
Head coach	Pat Kelsey (1st season)
Assistant coaches	Brian Kloman Thomas Carr Ronnie Hamilton Mike Cassidy Jermaine Ukaegbu
Home arena	KFC Yum! Center
Seasons ← 2023–24 2025–26 →

The 2024–25 Louisville Cardinals men's basketball team will represent the University of Louisville during the 2024–25 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The team will play 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 will be led by first-year head coach Pat Kelsey.

The Cardinals began the season with a one-point win against UMBC but lost to Chattanooga in their second game of the season. After defeating Coppin State, they lost both of their games in the Empire Classic. They then went on a two-game winning streak, including an overtime victory over New Mexico State. They went on a three-game losing streak from there, including an opening ACC game loss to Virginia Tech. Their only other win in 2023 was on December 17 against Pepperdine. The Cardinals first ACC win game at Miami (FL) on January 10, 2024. This was Kenny Payne's first road win as head coach.^[1] The team lost six straight games after the win. Their next wins came on February 3 and February 10, 2024, and were split by a road loss to Syracuse. The Cardinals would lose their final seven games of the ACC regular season.

The Cardinals finished the 2023–24 season 8–24 and 3–17 in ACC play to finish in fifteenth place. As the fifteenth seed in the ACC tournament, they lost to tenth seed NC State in the First Round. They were not invited to the NCAA tournament or the NIT. After their ACC tournament loss, the Cardinals fired head coach Kenny Payne.^[2]

After the dismissal of head coach Kenny Payne, previous Winthrop and Charleston head coach Pat Kelsey was signed to a five-year deal as the 24th coach in Louisville's history.^[3] Kelsey quickly brought a number of Charleston staff members to Louisville, including Brian Kloman and Thomas Carr as assistant coaches, Eli Foy as the head strength and conditioning coach, Jermaine Ukaegbu as the director of player personnel, and Mitch Johnson as the director of basketball operations. Other hires include LSU's Ronnie Hamilton as assistant coach and retired Louisville player Peyton Siva as the director of player development/alumni relations.^[4][5]

Departures

Name	Number	Pos.	Height	Weight	Year	Hometown	Reason for Departure
Mike James	0	G/F	6'6"	220	Sophomore	Orlando, Florida	Transferred to NC State[6]
Curtis Williams	1	G/F	6'5"	205	Freshman	Detroit, Michigan	Transferred to Georgetown[7]
Koron Davis	3	G	6'6"	185	Junior	Gary, Indiana	Transferred to Louisiana[8]
Ty-Laur Johnson	4	G	6'0"	160	Freshman	Brooklyn, New York	Transferred to Wake Forest[9]
Brandon Huntley-Hatfield	5	F	6'10"	240	Junior	Clarksville, Tennessee	Transferred to NC State[10]
Kaleb Glenn	10	F	6'6"	205	Freshman	Louisville, Kentucky	Transferred to FAU[11]
Dennis Evans	11	C	7'1"	215	Freshman	Riverside, California	Transferred to Grand Canyon[12]
JJ Traynor	12	F	6'8"	190	Senior	Bardstown, Kentucky	Transferred to DePaul[13]
Danilo Jovanovich	13	F	6'8"	220	Sophomore	Milwaukee, Wisconsin	Transferred to Milwaukee[14]
Hercy Miller	13	F	6'8"	220	Junior	Minneapolis, Minnesota	Transferred to Southern Utah[15]
Tre White	22	G	6'7"	205	Sophomore	Dallas, Texas	Transferred to Illinois[16]
Emmanuel Okorafor	34	F/C	6'9"	220	Sophomore	Albia, Nigeria	Transferred to Seton Hall[17]
Skyy Clark	55	G	6'3"	205	Sophomore	Los Angeles, California	Transferred to UCLA[18]

Incoming Transfers

Name	Number	Pos.	Height	Weight	Year	Hometown	Previous School
James Scott[19]	0	F	6'11"	210	Sophomore	Fayetteville, North Carolina	Charleston
J'Vonne Hadley[20]	1	G	6'6"	205	5th	Saint Paul, Minnesota	Colorado
Koren Johnson[21]	3	G	6'2"	175	Junior	Seattle, Washington	Washington
Cole Sherman[22]	4	G	5'11"	190	Junior	Louisville, Kentucky	Northern Kentucky
Terrence Edwards Jr.[23]	5	G/F	6'6"	190	Senior	Atlanta, Georgia	James Madison
Reyne Smith[24]	6	G	6'2"	190	Senior	Ulverstone, Tasmania	Charleston
Kasean Pryor[25]	7	F	6'10"	210	5th	Chicago, Illinois	South Florida
Kobe Rodgers[26]	11	G	6'3"	180	Senior	Cincinnati, Ohio	Charleston
Patrick Antonelli[27]	12	G	5'11"	170	5th	Mount Pleasant, South Carolina	Emory and Henry
Frank Anselem-Ibe[28]	13	C	6'10"	215	5th	Lagos, Nigeria	Georgia
Aly Khalifa[29]	15	C	6'11"	270	Senior	Alexandria, Egypt	BYU
Chucky Hepburn[30]	24	G	6'2"	195	Senior	Omaha, Nebraska	Wisconsin
Aboubacar Traore[31]	25	F	6'5"	195	Senior	Abidjan, Ivory Coast	Long Beach State
Noah Waterman[32]	93	F	6'11"	220	6th	Savannah, New York	BYU

College recruiting information

Name	Hometown	High school / college	Height	Weight	Commit date
Khani Rooths #9 F	Washington, D.C.	IMG Academy	6 ft 8 in (2.03 m)	200 lb (91 kg)	May 15, 2024
	Star ratings: Rivals:   247Sports:    ESPN:   ESPN grade: 88
Overall recruiting rankings:
Note: In many cases, Scout, Rivals, 247Sports, and ESPN may conflict in their listings of height and weight. In these cases, the average was taken. ESPN grades are on a 100-point scale. Sources: "2024 Louisville Commitments". Rivals.com. "Men's Basketball Recruiting". Scout.com. "ESPN- Louisville Cardinals Men's Basketball Recruiting". ESPN.com. "Scout.com Team Recruiting Rankings". Scout.com. "2024 Team Ranking". Rivals.com.

Louisville played two games in the Bahamas in the summer as allowed by the NCAA.

Schedule Source:^{[33] [34]}

With the additions of Stanford, Cal, and SMU the ACC will have a new scheduling format this season. Louisville will face Boston College, Georgia Tech, NC State, Notre Dame, SMU, Syracuse, and Virginia Tech on the road; Cal, Clemson, Duke, Miami, North Carolina, Stanford, and Wake Forest at home; and Pitt, Virginia and Florida State twice for home and away games.^[35]