Preview: Louisville's Matchup vs. Montana

The Louisville men's basketball program suffered a setback in their last time out on the floor, but they have an opportunity to bounce back in their next game, as they will return to the KFC Yum! Center to host Montana this weekend.

The Cardinals made the trek down to Rocky Top for a top-20 showdown at Tennessee, but they were punched in the mouth early and couldn't recover. UofL wound up suffering a demoralizing 83-62 loss, falling to 0-2 in true road games so far this season.

Louisville was without star point guard Mikel Brown Jr. due to a lower back injury, but even with him on the floor, it's unlikely they would have taken down UT. They shot just 37.9 percent from the floor, with Adrian Wooley and Ryan Conwell combining for 43 of their points. In fact, the Cards had twice as many turnovers (16) as they did assists (8), and let the Vols shoot 54.7 from the floor.

As for the Grizzlies, they are coming off a 2024-25 season in which they made the NCAA Tournament by way of winning the Big Sky Conference Tournament. However, year 12 under head coach Travis DeCuire hasn't exactly started on the right foot.

For starters, Montana is 0-2 against KenPom top-100 teams, losing 86-81 at Texas A&M as well as 102-93 at UNLV. Additionally, in their last time out, the Griz lost 82-75 to Montana Tech - an NAIA school - at home.

This will be the first all-time meeting between the two programs. Louisville holds a perfect 6-0 record against current members of the Big Sky Conference, with their last game being a 99-69 victory over Sacramento State back on Dec. 2, 2006 at Freedom Hall.

Montana Grizzlies (6-6, 0-0 Big Sky) at No. 11 Louisville Cardinals (9-2, 0-0 ACC)

• Date/Time: Saturday, Dec. 20 at 12:00 p.m. EST
• Place: KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Ky.
• TV: ACC Network Extra - Play-by-play and analyst TBD.
• Channel (Louisville)/Live Stream: Streaming on ESPN App.
• Radio (Louisville): 93.9 FM - Paul Rogers (play-by-play) and Bob Valvano (analyst).