Louisville-St. John's Not Happening for 2025-26 Season

A matchup that would pit the current Louisville men's basketball head coach Pat Kelsey against former Cardinals head coach Rick Pitino is now off the table. At least for now.

In an interview with 93.9 The Ville on Friday morning, UofL athletic director Josh Heird confirmed that a proposed matchup between Louisville and St. John's would not be happening for the upcoming 2025-26 season.

“Pat wants to play that game. I want to play that game. It didn’t make sense for us to play that game this year," Heird said.

Last month, Pitino told reporters at the Final Four in San Antonio that the two sides were working on scheduling a home-and-home series that would have started this year. The first matchup would have taken place at Madison Square Garden, while the second would be held at the KFC Yum! Center.

"Right now, we're negotiating with Louisville to bring them in very early in the season to play us," Pitino said at the time. "After they signed the backcourt that they just signed, I'm thinking of canceling that proposal. They're looking at their schedule to see if they could do it."

While the Cardinals and Red Storm will not do battle this upcoming season, the two sides still remain in active negotiations regarding scheduling a future home-and-home series.

"We're going to keep trying to figure it out," Heird said. "We had conversations last year, we reached out last year and they said, 'No, it doesn't fit into our schedule.' They reached out this year, and it doesn't fit into our schedule. But I'm hopeful that we can find a chance to play a home-and-home there.

"I think our fans would love it, obviously, I think their fans would love it. I think it's just a great opportunity for what looks to be two programs on the rise, that are going to be really good for years to come."

St. John's is coming off of a fantastic second season under Pitino. The Red Storm went 31-5 overall, winning the Big East regular season title and conference championship. St. John's earned a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, but fell in the second round of the Big Dance to Arkansas.

While a matchup with St. John's will not take place this season, Louisville's 2025-26 non-conference schedule is already fairly loaded. The Cardinals will host Kentucky, square off with Indiana in Indianapolis, travel to Tennessee, and yesterday announced a six-year series with Memphis.

Louisville is coming off of a successful year one under head coach Pat Kelsey. The Cardinals went 27-8 overall, winning more games than over the previous three seasons combined, resulting in Kelsey winning ACC Coach of the Year. UofL made their return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019 - although it resulted in a first round exit to Creighton.

More Cardinals Stories

You can follow Louisville Cardinals On SI for future coverage by liking us on Facebook, Twitter/X and Instagram:

Facebook - @LouisvilleOnSI
Twitter/X - @LouisvilleOnSI
Instagram - @louisvilleonsi

You can also follow Deputy Editor Matthew McGavic at @Matt_McGavic on Twitter/X and @mattmcgavic.bsky.social on Bluesky