KU Jayhawks vs. Louisville Cardinals exhibition hoops: Tipoff, probable starters
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kansas will play Louisville in a Friday exhibition at KFC Yum! Center, 6:30 CT.
- KU lists starters including soph Flory Bidunga and freshmen Darryn Peterson.
- Louisville features coach Pat Kelsey, returnees Conwell and McKneely.
The Kansas Jayhawks will tangle with the Louisville Cardinals in an exhibition game on Friday night in Louisville, Kentucky.
THE DETAILS
When/where: 6:30 p.m., Central time, Friday, KFC Yum! Center, Louisville, Kentucky
TV: ACC Network
Radio: WHB (810) in Kansas City; ESPN Wichita (92.3 FM).
Probable starters
KANSAS
F (No. 40) — Flory Bidunga, 6-10, Soph., 0.0 ppg
G (3) — Tre White, 6-7, Sr., 0.0 ppg
G (22) — Darryn Peterson, 6-6, Fr., 0.0 ppg
G (14) — Melvin Council Jr., 6-4, Sr., 0.0 ppg
G (7) — Kohl Rosario, 6-6, Fr., 0.0 ppg
LOUISVILLE
C (15) — Aly Khalifa, 7-0, Sr., 0.0 ppg
G (3) — Ryan Conwell, 6-4, Sr., 0.0 ppg
G (11) — Kobe Rodgers, 6-3, Sr., 0.0 ppg
G (10) — Isaac McKneely, 6-4, Sr., 0.0 ppg.
G (0) — Mikel Brown Jr., 6-5, Fr., 0.0 ppg.
More about this matchup
About preseason No. 19 Kansas: Bill Self is 609-156 (79.6%) at KU. … KU leads the all-time regular-season series against Louisville, 6-5. Last meeting was a 98-77 KU victory on Jan. 16, 1993 in Louisville, Kentucky. ... KU has won four of the last five meetings in a series that dates to 1959. This game, an exhibition, will not count in the all-time series between the schools. It is the first exhibition game between KU and U of L. … KU is 96-12 all-time in exhibition games. The Jayhawks last season lost to Arkansas, 85-69, in Fayetteville, then beat Washburn, 84-53, at Allen Fieldhouse. In 2023-24, KU lost to Illinois, 82-75, in an exhibition in Champaign, Illinois. … KU is 64-5 in exhibitions in the Self era. … KU returns just one part-time starter off last year’s 21-13 team, which placed sixth in the Big 12 with an 11-9 mark. Flory Bidunga, who averaged 5.9 points and 5.4 boards per game, started six of 34 games. He averaged 16.3 minutes per game. ... Players making their KU debuts vs. Louisville: Seniors Nginyu “Gee” Ngala, Jayden Dawson, Tre White, Melvin Council Jr. Freshmen Corbin Allen, Samis Calderon, Paul Mbiya, Kohl Rosario, Bryson Tiller, Darryn Peterson.
About preseason No. 11 Louisville: Louisville is led by second-year coach Pat Kelsey, whose first Cardinal team went 27-8 and earned the school’s first NCAA Tournament bid since 2019. The Cardinals lost to Creighton in the 2025 tourney opener. … After being hired in March of 2024 to replace Kenny Payne, Kelsey signed 12 players from the transfer portal and one freshman to the 2024-25 roster. … Kelsey, 50, who is a native of Cincinnati, went 75-27 in three seasons at Charleston after compiling a 186-95 mark in nine seasons at Winthrop. … Louisville has had six head coaches in the last 10 seasons. … Prior to Kelsey’s arrival, Louisville had won a combined 25 games in three seasons. … Louisville improved from eight wins in 2023-24 to 25 wins in 2024-25, the largest turnaround in program history, improving by 19 wins. It led the country in win differential. ... Louisville landed two Cardinals on the ACC preseason first team — senior guard Ryan Conwell and freshman guard Mikel Brown Jr.,. ... Louisville was picked second in the league’s coaches poll. … Conwell is at his fourth school in four years (Louisville, USF, Indiana State, Xavier). He was a third-team all-Big East player at Xavier for last season. … Senior guard Isaac McKneely played at Virginia last season where he hit 42.1% of his 3’s. … Junior forward Sananda Fru, a native of Berlin, Germany, played four seasons in the top pro league in Germany before heading to Louisville. …Sophomore guard Adrian Wooley is a transfer from Kennesaw State where he was Conference USA freshman of the year in 2024-25. … Freshman Brown was a teammate of KU’s Darryn Peterson in the 2025 McDonald’s All-America game. … Junior forward Evangelos Zougris played in the Greek Basketball League the past four years.
This story was originally published October 24, 2025 at 5:10 AM.
