No. 6 Louisville Cardinals (7-0, 0-0 ACC) at No. 25 Arkansas Razorbacks (5-2, 0-0 ACC)

– Tipoff: Wednesday, December 3 at 7:15 p.m. EST
– Location: Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville, Ark.
– How To Watch: ESPN
– How To Listen: 93.9 FM
– Betting Favorite: Louisville -3.0
– All-Time Series: Tied 4-4
– Last Meeting: Arkansas won 80-54 on Nov. 21, 2022 (Maui Invitational)

Projected Starting Lineups

Louisville

• G Mikel Brown Jr. (6-5, 190, Fr.)
• G Isaac McKneely (6-4, 195, Sr.)
• G Ryan Conwell (6-4, 215, Sr.)
• F J’Vonne Hadley (6-7, 210, 6th)
• F/C Sananda Fru (6-11, 245, Jr.)

Arkansas

• G Darius Acuff Jr. (6-3, Fr., 190)
• G D.J. Wagner (6-4, 190, Jr.)
• F Karter Knox (6-6, 220, So.)
• F Nick Pringle (6-10, 230, Gr.)
• Trevon Brazile (6-10, 230, Sr.)

Comparison

See how the Cardinals stack up against the Razorbacks, and who the statistical models favor: Tale of The Tape, Predictions: Louisville vs. Arkansas

Game Notes

Louisville

• Louisville will face Cardinal Forever, national champion and former head coach of the Cardinals Kenny Payne, who is an assistant for the Razorbacks.
• Louisville netted 20 3-pointers against NJIT on Nov. 26, the second-most made 3’s in a single game in program history. It’s just the second time ever the Cardinals have made at least 20 3’s in a game. UofL is the third team in DI this season to make at least 20 3-pointers against another DI team.
• Louisville’s back-to-back 40-point wins (87-46 over Eastern Michigan & 104-47 over NJIT) is the program’s first set of backto-back 40-point victories since 2012-13.
• Senior guard Ryan Conwell is the only DI men’s basketball player since at least 2010-11 to log at least 32 points, nine rebounds and six assists in 24 minutes or less, according to Sports Reference.
• Louisville has had two games of at least 24 assists, the first time since 2010-11 that the program has had multiple games of 24+ assists; the Cardinals had five games of at 24+ assists that season.
• Louisville’s positive 38 rebounding margin against NJIT on Nov. 26 was the third-largest rebounding margin by any team against a DI opponent this season, and the largest rebounding margin in program history.
• Louisville is 34-0 under Kelsey when leading with five minutes to play.
• With two 50-point victories on the season (104-45 vs. South Carolina State & 104-47 vs. NJIT), it marks the first time Louisville has had two 50-point victories in one season since 2004-05.
• A pair of Cardinals represent Louisville on the Naismith Trophy Player of the Year Watch List, Oscar Robertson Trophy Preseason Watch List and the Wooden Award Preseason Watch List; both Ryan Conwell and Mikel Brown Jr. were named to the esteemed lists.
• Freshman guard Mikel Brown Jr. was named to the Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year Award Preseason Watch List while senior guard Ryan Conwell was named the Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year Award Preseason Watch List.
• Head coach Pat Kelsey is the reigning ACC Coach of the Year – he is one of 10 active DI head coaches that have earned a Coach of the Year honor in three or more DI conferences.
• There were 14 players returning to DI this season that had made at least 175 3-pointers with a career 3-point field goal percentage of 38% or more; Ryan Conwell and Isaac McKneely are two of those 14.
• Louisville led 59-15 at halftime against South Carolina State on Nov. 3. The 44-point halftime lead was the largest in program history.
• Louisville’s two season opening victories marked the first time the Cardinals had back-to-back 30-point victories since 2016.
• Freshman guard Mikel Brown Jr. was named ACC Co-Player and CoRookie of the Week on Nov. 17 after averaging 24.0 ppg, 6.0 apg and shooting 48.1% from the floor in Louisville’s two Week 2 victories – a 96-88 win over Kentucky and 106-81 win over Ohio.
• The Cardinals landed two players on the Preseason All-ACC First Team, the only program to do so in 2025. Both Mikel Brown Jr., and Ryan Conwell earned the First Team nod.
• There are 14 players who returned to DI this season that started the season with at least 175 made 3-pointers with a career 3-point field goal percentage of 38% or more; Ryan Conwell and Isaac McKneely are two of those 14 players.
• Of the 10 players who were on an NCAA DI roster in 2024-25, eight of them were on teams that played in the 2025 NCAA Tournament.
• Louisville is one of the older teams in the country this season. When the Cardinals tipped off the season on Nov. 3, the average age of the 15-man roster was 21.3 years of age.
• UofL has three Cardinals on the roster that have scored over 1,000 DI points: Ryan Conwell (1,494), Isaac McKneely (1,175) and J’Vonne Hadley (1,085).

Arkansas

• LAST TIME THEY MET: ARK: 80 – LOU 54 (11/21/23 in Maui) Arkansas did not give Louisville an inch during a dominating defensive second half, turning an eight-point halftime lead into a 26-point, 80-54 victory in the opening round of the Maui Jim Maui Invitational. Anthony Black led the Razorback with a career-high 26 points (a total he matched the next day vs Creighton) while adding a game-high six assists 
• Razorback head coach John Calipari has a long history with the Louisville Cardinals. Overall, Coach Cal is 19-8 versus Louisville.
• With Arkansas’ win over Samford (Nov. 11), Razorback head coach John Calipari recorded his 880th career win as an NCAA Division I coach, passing Dean Smith for sixth all-time. Coach Cal now has 882 on-court wins and is 18 shy of reaching 900 wins as head coach of an NCAA Division I program.
• Starting with the Michigan State game, Arkansas will make history when it becomes the first team (on record) to play all the teams that advanced to the NCAA Elite 8 the previous year, four SEC opponents and four non-conference opponents. Including Arkansas, the Razorbacks’ schedule includes 11 of the 2025 NCAA Sweet 16 teams.
• In the UCA and Samford games, Arkansas started four McDonald’s All-Americans — D.J. Wagner (‘23) • Karter Knox (‘24) • Darius Acuff Jr. (‘25) • Meleek Thomas (‘25). It was the first and only time the Hogs started four McDonald’s All-Americans in the same game.
• Meleek Thomas scored 26 points against Winthrop. Trevon Brazile just missed a double-double with 14 and 8 while adding a key assist with 1:13 left to start Arkansas’s 6-0 run to end the game. However, it was the two’s defense that won the game.
• Arkansas ranks 8th in the NCAA — 1st in the SEC — in free throw percentage at 80.0% (132-165).^ Trevon Brazile leads the team in both makes (22) & attempts (27) and is shooting 81.5% … an improvement over last year’s 52.9%
• Arkansas is averaging 29.63 points on fastbreaks, which ranks 3rd-best in the NCAA. The Hogs had 34 fastbreak points versus Jackson State, compared to four by the Tigers.
• Arkansas opponents are only making 30.6% (59-of-193) of their 3-ppint attempts, which is a pretty true average as two opponents had great success shooting the 3, three were just OK and two were practically shutout. THE BAD: Southern and Winthrop were a combined 27-of-59 (45.8%) from 3-point range. Southern opened the season making 12-of-27 triples (44%). Winthrop was 15-of-32 (46.9%) from deep, making 7 in the 1st half and 8 in the 2nd. THE OK: Samford, Jackson State and Duke were a combined 27-of-79 (34.2%) from 3-point range. THE GOOD: MICHIGAN STATE AND UCA WERE A COMBINED 5-OF-55 (9.1%) FROM 3-POINT RANGE
• Arkansas had 24 assists with just four turnovers in the Jackson State win. Arkansas has dished out at least 15 assists in 5 of the 7 games and kept its turnovers to single digits in 5 of the 7.
• Arkansas shot an impressive 63.9% in the win over Jackson State – including 74.2% (23-of-31) in the second half. Arkansas scored a season-best 56 points in the paint … thanks to 16 dunks.

More Cardinals Stories