Louisville basketball beat Notre Dame, C.L. Brown’s One Take from game
Filling in for J’Vonne Hadley, Kasean Pryor had his best game of the season as the Louisville Cardinals beat Notre Dame 76-65 at the KFC Yum! Center.
- J’Vonne Hadley was downgraded from probable to a game-time decision for Louisville basketball’s noon tipoff today at Wake Forest.
- The sixth-year Swiss Army knife exited the No. 23 Cardinals’ win over Notre Dame on Wednesday due to a back injury at the 17:14 mark of the first half.
- Before Wednesday’s game, Hadley was UofL’s fourth-best scorer and its second-best rebounder per game.
WINSTON-SALEM, NC — Will J’Vonne Hadley return from a back injury to play for Louisville basketball today at Wake Forest?
The sixth-year Swiss Army knife was downgraded from probable to a game-time decision in the final ACC injury report released Saturday morning but will be in the starting lineup for the noon tipoff between Pat Kelsey’s No. 23 Cardinals (16-6, 6-4 ACC) the Demon Deacons (11-11, 2-7) at Joel Coliseum.
Hadley couldn’t make it past the opening three minutes of UofL’s win over Notre Dame on Wednesday night. He was ruled a game-time decision in that final injury report but felt good enough to make his 58th appearance in the starting lineup since joining the program via the NCAA transfer portal from Colorado before Year 1 of the Kelsey era. Upon being subbed out at the 17:14 mark of the first half, however, he walked off Denny Crum Court, looked at trainer Katie Creznic and shook his head, then proceeded down a tunnel toward the locker room.
After the victory, Kelsey said Hadley suffered “a really, really ugly fall” during practice Monday.
“It’s nothing serious, but he had a really hard fall,” the coach said. “Contusion in his back — or something like that, right? Something like that. It sounded good; it sounded smart. Something like that. He’ll be all right. He’s tough as heck.”
Hadley has appeared in all but one game during his time with the Cards. He entered Wednesday ranked fourth on the team in scoring (10.8 points per game on 54% shooting, 39.6% from 3-point range), second in rebounding (5.3), fourth in assists (1.8) and second in steals (1.1) across 27.9 minutes per contest.
For his UofL career, he’s averaging 11.5 points on 53.1% shooting (37.8% from 3), 6.6 rebounds and 1.7 assists in 30.9 minutes per game.
Louisville has a short turnaround after this road trip, returning to the KFC Yum! Center for a 7 p.m. tipoff Monday against N.C. State.
The game between the Cards and the Demon Deacons will air on the ACC Network, which is channel 610 on AT&T U-Verse; channel 612 on DirecTV; channel 402 on Dish; and channels 524 and 937 on Spectrum.
Wes Durham (play-by-play) and Dennis Scott (analyst) will be on the call.
If you subscribe to a cable package, you’ll be able to livestream the game via ESPN.com and the ESPN app. If you don’t have cable, you can livestream the game via Fubo, which offers a free trial here.
This story will be updated.
Reach Louisville men’s basketball reporter Brooks Holton at [email protected] and follow him on X at @brooksHolton.
