Louisville gets a noon checkup Saturday, and the assignment is a Morehead State team that arrives at the KFC Yum Center with plenty of numbers pointing in one direction.
The 11th-ranked Cardinals opened the season Nov. 2 with an 84-70 win over Chattanooga, but the mood afterward was hardly celebratory. Louisville was outscored 35-28 in the second half, and the players didn’t need Pat Kelsey to spell out the problem.
“When shots started not falling, that’s when we started playing down to our competition,” junior guard Adrian Wooley said after the win.
Senior guard Jackson Shelstad was just as direct.
“I think it’s naturally kind of easy to play harder when you’re hitting shots, but, with the team we’ve got, we can’t let that happen if we want to be special,” Shelstad added. “From here on out, we just can’t let offensive mistakes - missing shots; I thought we had a lot of good looks, but they just weren’t dropping - leading to defensive mistakes.”
Now Louisville (1-0) gets a chance to clean that up against an Eagles team that has already shown both ends of its range. Morehead State (1-1), led by third-year coach Jonathan Mattox, was picked tied for third in the Ohio Valley Conference’s 2026-27 preseason poll.
The Eagles opened with an 83-58 loss at Western Kentucky on Nov. 2, then bounced back with a 114-60 win over Virginia Lynchburg of the Division III ranks Nov. 5.
The profile underneath those results is thin. Mattox brings back seven players from a team that shared the OVC regular-season title and came one win short of the NCAA Tournament in 2025-26, but those returners combined to average just 25.6 points per game. Junior point guard Chase Dawson is the lone returning starter.
Through two games, sophomore forward Clayton Parker has been Morehead State’s most productive scorer, averaging 18 points on 70.6% shooting. He’s also adding 5.5 rebounds, three steals and 2.5 assists.
KenPom’s numbers paint a rougher picture for the Eagles: 271st in Division I experience at 0.70 years, 283rd in average height at 76.3 inches, 328th in tempo at 68.9 and 347th in adjusted defensive efficiency at 112.8 as of Nov. 6.
The betting market doesn’t leave much suspense. Louisville is a 36.5-point favorite at BetMGM, with the over/under set at 150.5 points. The money line has the Cardinals at -10000 and Morehead State at +3300.
The predictive models are just as lopsided. KenPom gives Louisville a 99.6% chance to win and projects an 89-59 final. BartTorvik.com has the Cardinals winning 99% of the time, with a 94-59 forecast.
Saturday’s game will stream on ACC Network Extra rather than air on a traditional TV channel. Kent Taylor and Larry O’Bannon will be on the call.
Fans with ACC Network access can watch through ESPN.com/watch or the ESPN app using their cable or live TV streaming credentials. Those without cable can get ACC Network, and therefore ACC Network Extra, through streaming services such as fuboTV, which offers a free trial.
On the radio, Nick Curran and Bob Valvano will have the call on the Cardinal Sports Network, including WLCL 93.9-FM and WGTK 970-AM in Louisville. The game can also be heard online via The Varsity Network.
Louisville’s schedule rolls on quickly after this one, with a trip to Memphis on Nov. 15 and a long list of heavyweight matchups still ahead, including Texas Tech, Texas, Michigan, Kentucky, North Carolina, Baylor and Duke.
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For a team trying to keep its momentum, losing a player like McCoy changes the feel of the matchup before it even kicks off. Louisville will have to lean on its remaining options and adjust on the fly, all while balancing a week that has already brought plenty of attention across the program, from footballs injury concerns to basketball notes involving former Cardinal Mikel Brown Jr. and coach Pat Kelseys push for more consistency. [Read more 🡒]