Better Know an ACC Opponent: Louisville

The school that exists to torment Cal WBB fans and commiserate with Cal MBB fans

In case you’ve blissfully forgotten, the Pac-12 is dead and Cal is now in a conference named after the other side of the country. If you’re reading this, it means that this new reality is not a deal breaker for you. Over the rest of the off-season, we’ll profile each and every member of this conference that Cal has joined, that will definitely 100% exist it its current form for years if not decades.

Previously: Boston College; Clemson; Duke; Florida State; Georgia Tech

Give me the basics

The University of Louisville reached its modern form when a few local educational institutions were combined into a larger institution in the immediate aftermath of the civil war, and it is now the second largest public university in the Kentucky system.

The campus is located primarily south of downtown Louisville, though there is a segment (including the basketball arena) north of downtown, right on the banks of the Ohio River within sight of Indiana.

Louisville is relatively new to the ACC, joining from the Big East in late 2012.

Do they have any relevant history with Cal?

With five minutes left in the game, Cal held a six point lead and I was sure the Bears were going to play in the National Freakin’ Title Game. Cal was dominating on the glass (of course) and playing rugged defense. And then things just . . . fell apart. Louisville scored on seven straight possessions to turn a 6 point deficit into a 3 point lead, then hit their free throws when Cal started fouling. Even one more stop, just one missed shot, and the final minute is a coin flip.

Cal would get some small measure of revenge with a home win over the Cardinals in 2014, before losing the return trip in 2015. Since then, Kianna Smith and Jayda Curry have both transferred from Cal to Louisville, as Jeff Walz and his smarmy smile have marked both the high point of Cal WBB’s recent history, and also the low point.

If you’re looking for happier memories, you might enjoy watching Jerome Randle, Theo Robertson and the Cal men just absolutely blitz Louisville out of the gate in the NCAA tournament, get a buzzer beater from Randle, weather a couple Louisville runs, and then bring on Max Zhang to cement the win.

Cal and Louisville have never played in football.

You may remember me from such Pac-12 teams as:

Honestly, there’s not a clear match here, but since we must:

A relative newcomer to join the conference that has historically been mostly known as a basketball school but has seen some surprising football success? I think the best comparison here is Utah, even if I don’t really love it.

I want to get on their good side. I should agree with them about:

“Kentucky hired Mark Pope? The 3rd best coach in the WCC? Man, what a joke! Pat Kelsey’s going to have the Cardinals running all over the Wildcats. Also, boy am I glad you fine Kentuckians know how to pluralize your mascot unlike those idiots in Palo Alto.”

I want to troll them incessantly. I should make fun of them for:

“Kentucky’s won five straight Governor’s Cups AND Kentucky is 13-3 against Louisville in the last 16 basketball games . . . is this even much of a rivalry anymore?”

What should I know about their current coaches?

Louisville just hired Pat Kelsey to revive a very broken basketball program (more on that below), and at the very least it should be fun. Kelsey’s Winthrop and Charleston teams were consistently VERY uptempo and shot a ton of 3s, though he hasn’t been able to win an NCAA game in four trips.

Louisville alum Jeff Brohm has been a solid coach at pretty much every stop after a brief pro career spent mostly in back-up QB roles, and Louisville was probably thrilled to grab him away from Purdue after Cincinnati bizarrely hired away Scott Satterfield from the Cardinals. He immediately led Louisville to a 10-4 season that saw them briefly reach #10 in the country, all behind the QB stylings of former Bear Jack Plummer.

I don’t like Jeff Walz, but he’s objectively a very good coach.

Which alumni keep them stuck in the past?

Few schools can boast a better pair of old-school/new-school QB greatness than the combination of Johnny Unitas and Lamar Jackson. Two players who revolutionized the position, 60 years apart . . . though only one of them had a haircut you could set your watch to.

On the court, old school Louisville fans probably bring up hall of famer Wes Unseld all the time, while I’d bet more modern fans can’t stop talking about Russ Smith, the kind of program spark plug and all-around winner without NBA-level athleticism that most fan bases grow to love.

Which alumni will they pretend they’ve forgotten?

People don’t like it when I get even slightly political but jeez, come on, Mitch McConnell? That’s a pretty big yikes.

Also Papa John is absolutely not a Louisville alum but I felt obligated to bring him up. I know he got kicked OFF the Louisville board of trustees for saying a bunch of dumb racist things, but what I want to know is: why was he on the board of trustees in the first place?!

(I mean, I know why, he donated a bunch of money to the school, but STILL.)

What’s their school tradition that they take way too seriously?

Honestly, I didn’t really find anything unique. Standard stuff like don’t step on the logo, make a hand signal in the shape of a letter, sing the alma mater type stuff. The football team enters to O Fortuna, which is fun for the opera buffs I suppose. I figured a team with the history of Louisville basketball would have some interesting traditions, but an exhaustive internet search didn’t reveal anything of note.

What non-revenue sport do they care about most?

The answer is likely women’s volleyball, which has always been a strong sport for Louisville but has recently hit a high that has coincided with the general growth of popularity across the country. In the last three years, Louisville has made it to the semifinals, the finals, and the quarterfinals respectively, winning back-to-back-to-back ACC titles in the process.

Should I go see Cal play a game there?

Louisville is one of those solid-but-unassuming mid-sized cities that doesn’t get a ton of attention but looks lovely enough. You’re supposed to visit in May for all of the hoopla and parties associated with the Kentucky Derby, but it’s going to be tough to find a Cal connection that time of year.

Cal football is scheduled to visit Louisville in 2025, so you should hope for an October game when the warm, humid summer has passed but it isn’t typically too chilly yet. Louisville’s football stadium seats about 60,000 without being particularly remarkable.

Louisville basketball used to play at historic Freedom Hall but in 2010 moved into the unfortunately named KFC Yum Center, and while I’m sure it’s nice it strikes me as kinda soulless and I bet there are plenty of Louisville old hats who bemoan the loss of their prior court.

Is Cal better than them at sports right now?

Funny, that. Cal MBB and Louisville MBB have been oddly connected in the minds of college basketball obsessives of late because both programs cratered themselves in utterly confounding ways. Chris Mack was, on the surface, an excellent hire and he had two pretty excellent seasons at Louisville before his tenure was derailed by a crazy extortion scandal. Louisville decided to bring in alum Kenny Payne, who had been an assistant at various levels across the sport, and he was not at all ready to deal with the problems he inherited. Louisville, one of the proudest programs in the country, went 4-28.

Cal, in the same year, went 3-29. Two of the worst power conference seasons of all time, simultaneously. There were calls to make the teams play each other in some sort of reverse national championship.

Cal, thankfully, pulled the plug on Mark Fox after that season, while Louisville gave Payne a 2nd chance before firing him after a less remarkably bad 8-24 season. Cal has the lead in the rebuilding process, though Louisville has an incredible 13 outgoing transfers and 12 incoming transfers, so we’ll see which coach can better meld together teams that are almost entirely newcomers.

I think Cal will be better in basketball this year.

As for football, Louisville lost a lot of offensive production but should have one of the better defenses in the ACC, and Brohm can usually build a strong offense, so they’re seen as a second tier conference contender and it’s probably for the best that Cal avoids them on the schedule this year.