This week’s Louisville basketball mailbag needs very little introduction.

On Saturday, the Cardinals (1-0) host No. 12 Tennessee (1-0) — a prime opportunity to deliver first-year head coach Pat Kelsey a signature win during Week 1 of the 2024-25 season, against a team coming off a trip to the Elite Eight this past spring.

“It’s going to be a great test for us,” Kelsey said Wednesday, during his radio show on WLCL 93.9-FM. “We’re really excited about the opportunity.”

Kelsey is 1-13 against ranked opponents across his 12-year career; the lone victory occurred Nov. 11, 2019, with Winthrop against No. 18 Saint Mary’s on the road. If he can orchestrate an upset in front of what’s sure to be a boisterous crowd at the KFC Yum! Center, U of L would make a strong case for cracking the AP Top 25 for the first time since Jan. 25, 2021.

Oh, and the early signing period is right around the corner. A busy time, indeed.

Now, let’s get to your questions:

Not so fast, my friend. A few things to consider:

Tennessee barely outscored Gardner-Webb in the paint, 38-34, during its 80-64 win Monday night. The Runnin’ Bulldogs outrebounded the Volunteers, 32-29, and, with a 10-8 advantage on the offensive glass, had a slim lead in second-chance points, 12-7.

After the game, coach Rick Barnes said starting forward Felix Okpara, a 6-foot-11, 235-pound junior who transferred in from Ohio State, is playing through a “pretty serious” hip pointer injury. Okpara tallied two points at the free-throw line, grabbed nine rebounds, picked up four fouls, turned the ball over three times and blocked one shot in 25 minutes of run against Gardner-Webb.

“He absolutely refuses to come out of practice and play,” Barnes said. “He’s going to play.

“I thought he was slow getting off the ball,” the coach continued. “He’s not normally slow at doing that. I’m really proud of the fact that (he’s playing through it) — if you’ve ever dealt with a hip pointer, you know what it’s like. I can show you film at practice where he’s almost trying to protect it with his hands. From a production standpoint, since I’ve known him, this might be the worst day he’s had; but he’ll work at it and he’ll get better.”

Barnes also said that Okpara’s backup, 6-11 sophomore J.P. Estrella, was not at 100% due to an ankle injury. He finished with four points, two rebounds, a block and a foul in 11 minutes.

The two other forwards on UT’s roster, 6-10 senior Igor Miličić Jr. and 6-9 sophomore Cade Phillips, combined for 15 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two fouls in 37 minutes.

Through two preseason exhibitions and its Game 1 win over Morehead State, Louisville has allowed its opponents to score 66 of their combined 158 points (41.8%) in the paint. But it might be catching the Vols at the right time.

To Jeff’s point, between Louisville’s two exhibitions and the Morehead State game, it has surrendered 46 points at the free-throw line. If its three opponents had shot 100% from the charity stripe, that number jumps to 72.

The Cards must limit those mistakes against Tennessee, which boasts the dangerous backcourt duo of North Florida transfer Chaz Lanier and reigning SEC Defensive Player of the Year Zakai Zeigler. The latter scored seven of his 13 points against Gardner-Webb at the line. The Vols made 16 of their 21 freebies.

Kelsey mentioned after Monday’s win how fouling too much can disrupt his team’s desired pace of play, which could loom large against the Vols. All of his teams dating back to 2015-16 have ranked among the top 100 in tempo on KenPom.com; while Barnes has had only two squads do so during that span.

But he also said he doesn’t want to limit his most instinctive defenders, citing Kasean Pryor and Chucky Hepburn by name.

“Sometimes, those guys kind of go out of the system a little bit, but you’ve got to let them be who they are,” Kelsey said. “You don’t want to put those guys in a box and take away some of their true gifts. Sometimes, they’ll get a little crazy and gamble a little bit, and it costs us on the backside; but again: I’d rather try to reel them back in a little bit.”

He might have to do some reeling Saturday if the fouls start piling up.

I’m fairly confident Kelsey won’t secure a top-50 recruit during the early signing period, which runs Nov. 13-20.

But there’s still a chance Louisville gets one before the 2025 cycle ends.

Mikel Brown Jr., a 6-3 point guard out of DME Academy in Florida, is the prospect to watch now. As of Thursday, he was the top-ranked floor general and the No. 10 overall talent in his class on the 247Sports Composite. And, for what it’s worth, he has an endorsement deal with Adidas.

Brown stopped by U of L on an unofficial visit in September, a couple of days before his official visit with archrival Kentucky. The former went so well that, a month later, On3’s Joe Tipton reported the Cards were one of two schools “carrying momentum” in his recruitment — the other being Alabama — and that Brown is tentatively planning to return for an official visit Dec. 8; when Kelsey’s team begins ACC play against Duke.

The catch is: Brown doesn’t appear to be in a rush to make his college decision. Tipton has said several times the point guard is “likely” waiting until the spring; so a lot can happen between now and then. But Louisville should be feeling good about where it stands with him — I’d venture to say more so than with any other uncommitted top-50 recruit it has offered.

Follow the instructions below to submit your question:

Questions can also be submitted via email (bholton@gannett.com) and X, formerly Twitter, to @brooksHolton.

Reach Louisville men’s basketball reporter Brooks Holton at bholton@gannett.com and follow him on X at @brooksHolton.

This story has been updated with additional information from a Fisk University spokesperson.

Fisk University campus safety officials are on “high alert” following “disturbing and offensive” messages targeting members of its community, a spokesperson said Thursday. 

The messages “suggest threats of violence and intimidation, and are deeply unsettling,” a campus-wide alert issued late Wednesday said.

The alert said that university officials believe the messages are “likely the work of an automated bot or malicious actors with no real intentions or credibility.”

Fisk is a historically Black campus located near downtown Nashville.

Maya Brown, executive director of Fisk’s Office of Marketing and Communications, described the messages as similar to those multiple news outlets have reported are circulating at campuses across the country: racist messages that appear to target Black students that tell them to report to vans or other transportation that will deliver them to plantations to pick cotton.

One day after the 2024 election, Gov. Bill Lee and lawmakers rolled out a recycled “universal” private-school voucher program designed to gain support from teachers and school districts with extra spending.

The measure doesn’t have a funding estimate attached, but lawmakers placed $144 million in this year’s budget for a plan that failed to pass, and the new proposal could cost another $275 million, plus funds to give teachers a one-time $2,000 bonus. In addition, 80% of all sports wagering money is to be dedicated to building and maintaining K-12 public schools.

Lee’s plan would provide 20,000 “scholarships” worth $7,075 for students to enroll in private schools in 2025-26 with 10,000 of those for students from families at or below 300% of the maximum income to qualify for free or reduced-price lunches — which is estimated to be nearly $175,000 per household income. Students with disabilities and those in the state’s education savings account program would be eligible too.

Some 350 private schools would be eligible to participate in the program and would be required to administer the state’s standardized test or one that fits their curriculum, but the bill says they would maintain educational freedom.

The state would add 5,000 “scholarships” each year once 75% of them are provided to students.

In introducing the bill, Lee and key lawmakers said they want to offer students a chance at educational success “regardless of their ZIP code.”

“Giving parents the ability to choose for their child will provide more opportunities and reduce poverty throughout our state,” said House Speaker Cameron Sexton, who opposed the school voucher program in 2019. “Increased competition for a student’s enrollment will make schools, school systems and administrators meet the need for a higher quality of education.”

Lawmakers failed to pass a similar bill proposed by the governor earlier this year when the Senate and House couldn’t agree to widely disparate versions. The House bill contained funding to give teachers more money for insurance as well as for districts to maintain school buildings. The Senate version allowed students to transfer to any public district in the state.

Lee told reporters Wednesday this is the legislation’s “next step” and said he believes lawmakers are “moving in that direction” to pass the bill. General Assembly leaders have tried to address members’ concerns in writing the bill, he said.

House Majority Leader William Lamberth said in a statement the bill “leaves no stone unturned when it comes to providing the very best educational path to set the next generation up for success.” He said the measure will allow public schools to remain the foundation for Tennessee’s education system while enabling parents instead of the governor to determine which route helps their children the most.

The press release also says the bill “ensures state funding to school districts will never decrease due to disenrollment,” and the governor backed that up Wednesday.

One of opponents’ biggest complaints has been that private-school vouchers will drain money from public schools.

Yet the bill says a school district’s funding “shall not decrease from one year to the next year due to the disenrollment of students.” If districts lose students, the state would have to pay additional funds to those districts to cover those transfers for just one year.

In addition, the bill denies “scholarships” to undocumented students, even though a 1982 Supreme Court case, Plyler v. Doe, prohibits states from denying students a free public education based on immigration status. 

Democratic Sen. Jeff Yarbro of Nashville said it is clear the governor is trying to buy teachers’ support with bonus pay.

“It’s offensive that this voucher con job, which quite clearly will make it nearly impossible for Tennessee to keep paying teachers what they deserve, is being accompanied by this one-time token money,” Yarbro said.

The new proposal isn’t much different from the one that failed this year, Yarbro said, except that more data is available showing it won’t work.

Similar plans in states such as Kentucky, Colorado and Nebraska were defeated in the form of constitutional amendments at the polls Tuesday.

When a comparable plan was adopted in Arkansas, more than 95% of students using vouchers were enrolled in private schools already, Yarbro said.

Democratic Sen. London Lamar of Memphis criticized the plan by saying it is designed only to divert public money to private schools that are “unaccountable” and don’t have to serve all children.

Universal voucher programs also lead to “runaway spending,” Lamar said. In Arizona, a private-school voucher program, in part, caused a $1.4 billion shortfall, according to a ProPublica report.

Dark money flooded the 2024 election, especially during primaries, in an effort to elect pro-voucher lawmakers. The governor took the unusual step of endorsing pro-voucher candidates, but it is unclear whether he gained enough votes to pass a plan next session.

Republican state Rep. Todd Warner of Chapel Hill, an ardent opponent of private-school vouchers, said Wednesday he would rather see the governor lobby President-elect Donald Trump to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education and get rid of federal regulations than to try to pass another voucher program.

“I honestly think that would eliminate many of the concerns that our public has with our public education system,” Warner said.