Kentucky leads the all-time series against Louisville 40-17 and has won three straight over the Cardinals including a 93-85 victory early this season. However, in Year 1 under head coach Pat Kelsey, Louisville is finally punching back, climbing ahead of the Wildcats in the AP Top 25 this week for the first time since 2021.
Louisville is ranked higher than Kentucky in the MBB AP Poll for the first time since 2021. pic.twitter.com/cnWGyn8VtP
— College Basketball Report (@CBKReport) March 3, 2025
Louisville has won five straight heading into a Wednesday night matchup with Cal, the penultimate game of the regular season. Kelsey’s group is 23-6 and at 16-2 they are tied for second in the ACC behind Duke, the No. 2 team in the country. First-year transfer Chucky Hepburn, who led the way with 26 points in the loss to Kentucky, is a lock for first-team All-ACC, averaging 16.3 points, 6.0 assists, and 2.4 steals a game. And he may just carry the Cardinals farther than the Wildcats this March.
Kentucky is also in the first year under its new head coach, Mark Pope. Pope has notched big-time wins, including knocking off Duke back in November, however, the Wildcats have fallen to 10th place in the loaded SEC with an 8-8 conference record. Both programs have a rejuvenated feel as they prepare for March, and that’s a great thing for college basketball.
It may not be Indiana, but Kentucky is one of the most basketball-obsessed states in the country. With John Calipari continually coming up short in March and Louisville withering away for two years under Kenny Payne, things felt very stale in one of the sport's most fun non-conference rivalries.
Despite getting knocked out of the NCAA Tournament by Oakland in a first-round upset last year, the situation in Louisville was much more dire, and the turnaround has been even more dramatic. The Cardinals have not made the NCAA Tournament since 2019, the first year under Chris Mack, who was fired in 2022 and eventually replaced by Payne. Once a tournament mainstay under Denny Crum and then Rick Pitino, Louisville will finally be back in 2025, and potentially as a No. 3 seed, or even better if they can pull off an upset of Duke in the ACC Tournament.
All sports are better when their best rivalries are two-sided, and after years of dysfunction, that appears to finally be the case in the state of Kentucky.
Louisville's rise up the rankings could be attributed to the state of the ACC, which is a much weaker conference than the SEC in the 2024-25 season. And with a win head-to-head, Kentucky still holds the upper hand in this rivalry, but maybe a Sweet 16 matchup this March could change that. Here's hoping we get one.