Louisville returns home to face Ole Miss on Tuesday in the SEC/ACC Challenge, and challenge may be an apt word for the host Cardinals, who could be short-handed for their contest with the No. 23 Rebels.
Both teams are coming off tough holiday tournament losses on Friday. Louisville (5-2) fell 69-64 to Oklahoma in the Battle 4 Atlantis championship after trouncing then-No. 14 Indiana 89-61 and needing overtime to beat West Virginia 79-70 in the Bahamas.
The Cardinals did not get a single vote in last week’s AP poll, but on Monday, they pulled in the 10th-most votes of the additional 29 teams that received votes.
Ole Miss (6-1) lost 80-78 against then-No. 13 Purdue on a last-second shot in the final of the Rady Children’s Invitational in San Diego. The day before, the Rebels also needed overtime to knock off BYU, 96-85.
Rebels coach Chris Beard’s team trailed the Boilermakers 25-8 just past the midpoint of the first half. Ole Miss battled back to lead 75-68 with just over five minutes remaining in the game, only to see Purdue mount a comeback of its own.
Beard said on the Rebels’ postgame radio show that he didn’t think his team lost the game, it just ran out of time.
“We had some pivotal mistakes late, but this is November,” Beard said. “These are learning opportunities. … We’re going to be in a lot of games like this, where you play hard, you give yourself a chance to win. The team that makes the fewest mistakes and the more aggressive teams are going to win.”
The Cardinals, meanwhile, lost more than just the game on Friday. Kasean Pryor exited the contest after suffering a left knee injury early in the second half, and it was announced Monday that he will miss the remainder of the season due to a torn anterior cruciate ligament.
Pryor had been a critical part of Louisville’s early success, averaging 12 points and 6.1 rebounds per game. The Cardinals have also been playing without Aboubacar Traore (broken arm) and Koren Johnson (shoulder).
After Friday’s loss, Louisville coach Pat Kelsey said the initial concern for his players was to recover sufficiently for Tuesday.
“They played three rock fights (in the Bahamas), as I like to call them,” Kelsey said. “The last three games were extremely physical and hotly contested games with big crowds, big moments, with really, really big lights. So, our guys sure are physically and mentally fatigued.”
Both the Cardinals and Rebels have had balanced offensive attacks, with Louisville boasting four players with a scoring average in double figures and Ole Miss featuring five. The Cardinals’ Chucky Hepburn (14.6 points per game) and the Rebels’ Jaylen Murray (14.6) have been leading the way for their respective teams.
Tuesday will mark Dre Davis’ return to Louisville. The fifth-year Rebels guard, who is averaging 11 points per game this season, played for the Cardinals from 2020-22, then transferred to Seton Hall for the next two seasons.
–Field Level Media
