Louisville men’s basketball learned today who they will face in the annual ACC/Big Ten Challenge. It will be the Maryland Terrapins. It is the very team that left the ACC and joined the Big Ten which opened up a spot in the ACC that UofL now occupies.
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝗲𝘁.
— Louisville Men's Basketball (@LouisvilleMBB) June 24, 2022
📝: https://t.co/CSGdcBg9M6#GoCards x #ACCB1G pic.twitter.com/WFMzPojHsg
In fact, the programs are paralleling each other eerily lately. Unknown issues led to a mutual parting once successful coach Mark Turgeon last season not long after a loss to interim head coach Mike Pegues and Louisville. Louisville would also have a mutual parting with its head coach Chris Mack. Former Maryland assistant Danny Manning is now on staff at UofL while former UofL assistant Kevin Willard is now the head coach at Maryland.
It will be a rematch of the two teams after last year’s UofL win in the Bahamas. Louisville will be looking to get back to their winning ways in the challenge as they have lost the last two games against Wisconsin and Michigan State, both on the road.
Below, you can read more about the matchup from the Louisville Athletics Department:
Press Release From Louisville Athletics:
Louisville Will Face Maryland in ACC/Big Ten Challenge
Online: https://uofl.me/3buek2p
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The University of Louisville men’s basketball team will play Maryland in the 24th Annual ACC/Big Ten Challenge on Tuesday, Nov. 29 in Louisville’s KFC Yum! Center. The tipoff time and television network will be announced later.
Louisville has won four of its eight previous challenge events since joining the ACC but fell 73-64 at No. 22 Michigan State in last year’s event. The Cardinals beat No. 14 Ohio State 64-55 in Louisville in the 2014 ACC/Big Ten Challenge, fell 71-67 at No. 3 Michigan State in 2015, prevailed 71-64 over No. 15 Purdue in Louisville in 2016, lost 66-57 at Purdue in 2017, beat No. 9 Michigan State 82-78 in overtime in the 2018 event at home, beat No. 4 Michigan 58-43 in the KFC Yum! Center in 2019 and lost 85-48 at No. 12 Wisconsin in 2020 after coming off a COVID-related pause.
The Cardinals have a 6-2 all-time record against Maryland, including a 63-55 UofL victory over the Terrapins in the championship game of the 2021 Baha Mar Hoops Bahamas Championship on Nov. 27, 2021, in Nassau, Bahamas. Current UofL Associate Head Coach Danny Manning was an assistant coach for that Maryland team before serving as interim head coach after then-head coach Mark Turgeon stepped down on Dec. 3.
First-year Maryland Head Coach Kevin Willard was an assistant at UofL for six years (2001-07). The Cardinals were a combined 142-58 during Willard’s six years at Louisville, reaching the 2005 Final Four. Willard guided the Cardinals to a 64-48 win over Houston (1-28-04) in Freedom Hall when Pitino took a short medical leave.
In 2014, Louisville moved from the Big East Conference to replace Maryland in the ACC when the Terrapins left to join the Big Ten Conference.
The teams have met once in NCAA Tournament competition, with Louisville prevailing 96-82 over fourth-ranked Maryland in the 1975 NCAA Midwest Regional Championship as Louisville advanced to its third Final Four. UofL has a collective 61-49 series record against current members of Big Ten Conference.
Louisville will be guided in 2022-23 by first-year head coach Kenny Payne, a veteran college and NBA coach with 17 years of coaching experience and a former Cardinal Basketball great. He was named the Cardinals’ new coach on March 18 after two years as an assistant coach with the NBA New York Knicks.
The Cardinals, 13-19 in 2021-22, have posted 73 winning seasons over the last 77 years. Louisville is one of only six schools to be ranked in the AP Top 25 poll at least in 18 of the past 19 seasons (since 2002-03, excluding preseason polls) and the Cardinals have finished among the nation’s Top 25 teams in eight of the last 12 years.
