We should know plenty about IU basketball after their first game at the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas.
The Hoosiers need a strong showing at the event, and they’ll get a good test to start the three-day tournament when they face cross-border foe Louisville. That game comes just 10 days after IU hosts South Carolina, so by then we should have a pretty good handle on how well Mike Woodson has built his impressive talent haul into a cohesive team.
Indiana has a 12-9 all-time series lead over Louisville after they rallied for a 74-66 win over Kenny Payne’s Cardinals last year at the Empire Classic.
Payne was fired after an 8-24 season, and Louisville first-year head coach Pat Kelsey has an even greater challenge than Woodson when it comes to building his team. Since the Cardinals fired Payne, the roster has completely flipped. They added 13 new scholarship players, 12 transfers and one freshman.
Some of the names should be familiar to Big Ten fans, including Chucky Hepburn from Wisconsin, and Koren Johnson from Washington. In all Kelsey added six players who averaged double-figures a season ago:
- Terrence Edwards Jr. (17.2 PPG at James Madison),
- Kasean Pryor (13.0 PPG at South Florida),
- Reyne Smith (12.8 PPG at Charleston),
- Aboubacar Traore (12.0 PPG at Long Beach State),
- J’Vonne Hadley (11.6 PPG at Colorado),
- Koren Johnson (11.1 PPG at Washington),
- Kobe Rodgers (9.7 PPG at Charleston),
- Noah Waterman (9.5 PPG at BYU),
- Chucky Hepburn (9.2 PPG at Wisconsin),
- Aly Khalifa (5.7 PPG at BYU),
- James Scott (5.0 PPG at Charleston),
- Frank Anselem-Ibe (2.6 PPG at Georgia)
- Khani Rooths (class of 2024 4-star)
To say it is difficult to get a read on how that overnight assemblage of talent will mesh is an understatement.
But the Cardinals did take a foreign trip to the Bahamas over the summer, albeit against suspect competition. They defeated Bahamas Select 111-59, and then claimed a 111-71 win over the University of Calgary.
Louisville will play Tennessee on Nov. 9. That will be a game to watch to, as the Vols are even something of a common foe as the Hoosiers play them in an exhibition in a couple weeks.
Kelsey has been a winner across his 12 seasons as a head coach, including the last three at College of Charleston and the previous nine at Winthrop. He has a 261-122 record (68.1%) across his head coaching career with 11 total conference championships and four NCAA Tournament bids.
Trademarks of Kelsey’s offense are tempo and three-point shooting. He’s got five players who shot better than 35% from long range a year ago on more than 100 attempts each. A sixth, Hadley, shot over 40 percent on lower volume.
Indiana would seem to have an advantage in the frontcourt, with Pryor and Waterman expected to lead the way for the Cardinals. The Hoosiers will likely need to dominate the paint and glass in this one, while getting back on defense and limiting Louisville’s looks from deep.
The Cardinals are preseason No. 64 according to Bart Torvik (Indiana is No. 30). Torvik predicts the Cardinals will finish ninth in the now 18-team ACC. The Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook pegs Louisville as the eight-best ACC team.
But this is clearly a wildcard team with the potential to surprise on the upside. Indiana will be tested.
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