Louisville basketball gets Ole Miss at home in SEC/ACC Challenge debut under Pat Kelsey

Louisville men’s basketball will compete in a bragging-rights battle between the ACC and the SEC during Year 1 of the Pat Kelsey era.

The Cardinals will host Ole Miss on Tuesday, Dec. 3, at the KFC Yum! Center as part of the SEC/ACC Challenge, the conferences announced Wednesday afternoon.

This will be U of L’s first time participating in the event, which began in 2023, and its first time facing the Rebels since a Dec. 18, 2008, victory in Cincinnati as part of the SEC/Big East Invitational.

The schools have met two other times, in 1997 and 1998. Ole Miss won both of those games.

The Cards were left out of the inaugural field after finishing last in the ACC in 2022-23 under former head coach Kenny Payne. That was also the case in 2023-24, Payne’s final season at the helm; but two conference newcomers, SMU and Stanford, were left on the sideline this year.

In its first season under head coach Chris Beard, Ole Miss opened the 2023-24 campaign on a 13-game winning streak and appeared in the AP Top 25 poll for the first time since 2019. But its NCAA Tournament drought extended to five years after it lost eight of its final 10 games, had a first-round exit at the SEC Tournament and finished with a 20-12 (7-11) record.

Beard signed six players through the NCAA transfer portal after losing as many to it this offseason. The most notable of his new additions are former Seton Hall guard Dre Davis, who played at Louisville from 2020-22, and former Virginia Tech guard Sean Pedulla, who finished 2023-24 ranked among the ACC’s top 10 players in points (16.4) and assists (4.6) per game.

Ole Miss came in at No. 22 in ESPN’s way-too-early top 25 poll, which published May 30.

Other confirmed opponents on U of L’s 2024-25 nonconference schedule include: Morehead State (Nov. 4), Tennessee (Nov. 9), Bellarmine (Nov. 19), Winthrop (Nov. 22) and Kentucky (Dec. 14). Per a report from CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein, it’ll also host Eastern Kentucky on Dec. 28.

The Cards are also competing in the Bad Boy Mowers Battle 4 Atlantis, which runs Nov. 27-29, at the Atlantis Paradise Island resort in the Bahamas. Matchups have not yet been announced, but the tournament field includes Arizona, Davidson, Gonzaga, Indiana, Oklahoma, Providence and West Virginia.

Here’s a look at the full SEC/ACC Challenge slate:

Note: Games will air across ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, the ACC Network and the SEC Network. Times and TV assignments will be announced at a later date.

Tuesday, Dec. 3

Wednesday, Dec. 4

• Alabama at North Carolina

• Auburn at Duke

• Pittsburgh at Mississippi State

• Texas at N.C. State

• Vanderbilt at Virginia Tech

• Virginia at Florida

Last year’s event ended in a 7-7 tie.

Reach Louisville men’s basketball reporter Brooks Holton at bholton@gannett.com and follow him on X at @brooksHolton.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville basketball to host Ole Miss in 2024 SEC/ACC Challenge