Louisville 94 | Montana 54

In Louisville’s final non-conference tune up, the Cardinals yet again had to play without star Freshman Mikel Brown Jr.; In good news, it didn’t matter in tonight’s matchup and the Cardinals were able to run away!

After playing their first game without him on Tuesday and falling to Tennessee in Knoxville, the Cardinals struggled out of the gate today, with this matchup being relatively close for the first 12 or so minutes today. The score was 25-20 with rough ly 4:39 remaining in the first half. Louisville quickly rattled off a 17-0 run to end the half and went into the break leading 42-20! The second half remained all-Cards and the starters got a solid break for the final 5 or so minutes. The Cardinals rolled today and while they were supposed to win big, I still came away impressed with the performance.

Postgame comments and injury Updates:

Pat Kelsey: “I always worry about guys having sugar plums in their heads this close to the Holiday.” He added that this team does amazing at staying professional always and never a concern about them not playing focused. Chief Reminder Officer – Reminding guys what the Louisville standard is every single day. He’s focusing on recovery for the break and wants guys to get their mind and bodies right. He thought the bigs played very selfish (in a good way) today on the glass. “We’re a team, next man up every time. Don’t link, it’s just how it is, zero excuse”. He added that Ryan had to change roles this week and is much more ball dominant, likely adding to his shooting struggles.

He added that Haldley is the best Swiss Army knife that he’s coached. He takes pride in knowing every role and can play every spot 1-5. He adds that any injuries aren’t going to bring excuses. Every guy is expected to be ready when their name is called. He focused on the fact that Isaac McKneely and the shooters at Louisville this year are elite at forgetting the last shot and always being confident akin to a closer in baseball. For Tennessee: 8 assist to 16 turnovers lost the Cards the game. He also doesn’t make any excuses and adds that everyone has to be better, regardless of who is out. He added that the Cards had “the advantage of no choice” tonight because of the guard issues.

McKneeley: “A big emphasis is to start getting the bigs involved tonight to ensure we compensate for our PGs being out right now.” He also added that he hasn’t played PG since high school and is now being required to do that with the injuries. Isaac added we will see more emphasis on the bigs in ACC play. He has added Fru is the best lob threat in the country and Aly is the best passing big in the country, so being able to play into those two strengths is something they’re evolving into.

Sananda Fru gave all credit to his teammates as they were able to help get him in the right actions and feed him the ball where he could score. He noted coach Kelsey has implemented some actions now to help get the bigs involved.

NKY’s Takeaways:

• What was crazy about this game tonight was I thought Louisville genuinely played poorly and had plenty of opportunity to do better. They shot 34-65 from deep (35%), but there were several poor shots that I thought the Cards rushed.
  • Louisville turned it over 14 times against a team who is 346th in turnover percentage in the country. That resulted in just 15 points for the Grizzlies, but is something that Louisville needs to improve on before moving to ACC play!
  • Louisville also had just 9 fast break points. For a team who loves to run, this just isn’t enough. However, with the competition noted, I’ll put an asterisk by that for this game.
• Louisville’s Bigs showed up in a big way, especially in the first half when the Guards (Conwell and Mckneely) were really struggling. Fru/Khalifa/Zougris combined for a total of 26/14/9. Obviously that’s combined over three players and not necessarily to biggest Stat line you’ll ever see, but the Cards are so guard heavy that this is more than enough to get them where they need to go!

Key Performances:

• Player of the Game: Sananda Fru, who put up 18/8/1, with 2 blocked shots, 1 steal and 3 turnovers. If he can continue to be the physical presence that he was today when the competition ramps up, that elevates this team to where many prognosticators thought they’d be.
• Louisville’s top performances:
  • Isaac McKneely: 16/5/0, 1 turnover, 1 steal.
  • Ryan Conwell: 14/5/2, (3-11 from 3), 3 steals, no turnovers!
  • J’vonne Hadley: 13/4/3, 1 turnover, 2 steals
  • Khani Rooths: 10/2/3, 0 turnovers!
  • Khalifa had 4 turnovers tonight and struggled at times.
• Montana’s top performances:
  • Grant Kepley: 15/1/1, 4 turnovers, 1 steal
  • Tyler Thompson: 12/1/0

Overall, this is exactly what Louisville was looking for when it came to today’s Matchup. They took care of business and were able to learn to play without Brown Jr.!

Mikel Brown Jr. update:

“I have no idea. I am not God, so I cannot tell you if the break will be enough time to heal. There was zero chance I was ever going to go to medical school.” – Pat Kelsey

Coach is hoping to see him back next week. Mikel is completely non-contact right now.

Up Next:

Louisville will play Cal on 12/30/25 in California! Montana will have 11 days off before taking on Northern Arizona at home on 1/1/26 to open their conference slate!

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