Louisville’s preseason ACC profile got a serious boost with two Cardinals landing on the league’s All-ACC teams, and the conference’s coaches and voters clearly see Pat Kelsey’s group as one of the top threats right away.
Junior forward Flory Bidunga made the First Team, while senior guard Jackson Shelstad checked in on the Second Team. Louisville also came in third in the ACC preseason poll, collecting one first-place vote behind Duke and Virginia.
That puts the Cardinals in a select group. Louisville was one of only four teams to place multiple players on the two five-man preseason teams, joining Duke, Virginia and Miami - the same four schools that occupied the top three spots in the preseason order of finish.
Bidunga arrives with a résumé that already jumps off the page. The reigning Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year led that league in blocks with 91 and blocks per game at 2.6, numbers that ranked fourth and fifth nationally, respectively, during the 2025-26 season. He also shot 64% from the field, tops in the Big 12 and good for 10th in the country, while averaging 13.3 points, 9.0 rebounds and 2.6 blocks.
The 6-10, 235-pound forward from Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, put together four 20-point games and collected 13 double-doubles. His award haul matched the production: All-Big 12 First Team, All-Defensive Team, a finalist nod for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award, and late-season mention on the Naismith Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year lists.
Before that, Bidunga was already making noise at Kansas. As a freshman, he set the program’s freshman field goal percentage record by hitting 69.8% of his shots. He led the Jayhawks with 54 blocks and ranked third in the Big 12 with 1.6 blocks per game.
Shelstad brings a different kind of punch to Louisville’s backcourt. The 6-1, 185-pound guard from West Linn, Oregon, transferred in after three seasons at Oregon, where he started 77 of 79 career games. In 12 games for the Ducks in 2025-26, he averaged 15.6 points, 4.9 assists, 2.9 rebounds and 1.4 steals, including five games with at least 20 points and nine outings with four or more assists.
He was an All-Big 10 Third Team pick as a sophomore after posting 13.7 points, 2.9 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.0 steals per game. That season included 25 double-figure scoring games and 10 games with at least four assists, plus 21 contests in which he hit multiple 3-pointers.
Shelstad’s biggest scoring night of the 2025 NCAA Tournament came in Oregon’s Round of 32 game against Arizona, when he put up 25 points on 9 of 14 shooting. That was his second-highest career total, trailing only a 26-point outing against Northwestern earlier that season.
His early Oregon years were productive too. Shelstad earned Pac-12 All-Freshman Team and Pac-12 All-Tournament Team honors in 2023-24, then averaged 12.8 points, 2.8 assists and 2.9 boards per game as a freshman. He helped the Ducks finish third in the Pac-12 in assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.36 and logged 23 double-digit scoring performances.
Louisville’s first public exhibition is set for Oct. 21 at Kansas, with ESPNU carrying the game at 7 p.m. ET.
The rest of the ACC preseason picture was also announced, with Duke taking the top spot in the poll, Virginia second and Miami fourth. Thijs De Ridder of Virginia was the Preseason ACC Player of the Year, while Duke’s Joaquim Boumjte Boumjte was named Preseason ACC Rookie of the Year.
In Other News...
Jeff Brohm's Louisville Vision Could Soon Feel A Lot More Real
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Brohm has made it clear since arriving in Louisville that the goal is not just relevance, but sustained contention, and a larger playoff would give that vision a little more breathing room. The Cardinals would still have to earn everything on the field, of course, but the path to the postseason could look less like a perfect-season-or-bust proposition and more like something a consistent ACC contender can realistically chase. [Read more 🡒]
Louisvilles Offense Faces One Syracuse Weakness That Could Change Everything
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Even so, one vulnerability still hangs over the matchup, and it is the kind Louisvilles offense is built to test. Safety Chris Peal has had coverage issues, especially when the ball goes deep, leaving Syracuse with a spot the Cardinals can try to exploit if they push the field vertically and force the Oranges improved defense to hold up in the one area that has not fully settled in yet. [Read more 🡒]
Ryan Conwell Is Already Giving Louisville Fans A Reason To Watch Miami
Mikel Brown Jr. made his NBA preseason debut with the Brooklyn Nets against the Miami Heat, and Louisville fans had another familiar name to track on the other side. Ryan Conwell, Browns former Cardinals teammate now in Miami, turned in a steady showing with 13 points while filling up the box score in other areas, giving a little more evidence that his game is translating quickly at the next level.
The performance also drew attention from one of the leagues biggest stars, with Giannis Antetokounmpo praising Conwells play and saying he is excited to share the floor with him this season. For Louisville supporters, it is a reminder that even in a preseason game far from campus, there are still plenty of reasons to keep one eye on Miami. [Read more 🡒]