25d ago basketball Edit

Tennessee basketball to face Louisville in home-and-home series

BROOKLYN, NY - NOVEMBER 21, 2018 - Guard Jordan Bone #0 of the Tennessee Volunteers during the NIT Season Tip-Off game between the Louisville Cardinals and the Tennessee Volunteers at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY. (Andrew Ferguson/Tennessee Athletics)

Ryan Sylvia • VolReport

Assistant Managing Editor

Born in Knoxville, Tenn. and a graduate of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Covering football, men's and women's basketball, baseball, softball and recruiting for VolReport.

Tennessee basketball has agreed with Louisville to schedule a home-and-home series.

This upcoming season, the Vols will make the trip westward to face the Cardinals in Louisville. The following 2025-26 season, Tennessee will host Louisville in Knoxville.

Next season's matchup will be held on Nov. 9, 2024, with the following taking place on Dec. 16, 2025.

TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM

The teams have met 20 times on the hardwood in history. The Vols trail the series 8-12 but picked up the most recent win of the bunch. In November of 2018, Tennessee downed the Cardinals 92-81 in Brooklyn, New York. That Tennessee team would go on to be ranked No. 1 in the country but ultimately fell in the Sweet 16 in Louisville to Purdue.

The last time the teams met not at a netural site was 2005. Louisville won that battle along with a matchup in Knoxville the year prior.

This time, the Cardinals will boast a first-year head coach for the program. Pat Kelsey is taking over following a string of abysmal years for the team as it scraped the bottom of the ACC.

Kelsey boasts experience coaching at Charleston before landing the job.

As the schedule continues to be ironed out, Louisville joins Illinois as confirmed out-of-conference opponents. The Vols will also travel for that matchup as it returns the home-and-home that began a year ago.

Tennessee will return notable players in Zakai Zeigler, Jahmai Mashack and Jordan Gainey. It also brings in transfers Chaz Lanier, Felix Okpara, Igor Milicic Jr. and Darlinstone Dubar.

The lone freshman joining the team is Bishop Boswell who recently moved onto campus as he begins his college career.

The Vols are coached by Rick Barnes who is 1-0 over the Cardinals in his Tennessee tenure. This came in the 2018 matchup in Brooklyn.

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