USF vs Louisville: What to know about the Bulls’ NCAA tournament opponent

Next game: USF vs. Louisville in the first round of the NCAA tournament

Site: Buffalo

Day and time: Thursday, 1:30 p.m.

How to watch: TNT

Broadcast crew: Brian Anderson (play-by-play), Jim Jackson (analyst) and Allie LaForce (reporter)

Point spread: FanDuel has Louisville favored by 5.5 points

USF has drawn one of the blue bloods of college basketball in the Louisville Cardinals.

This is the 45th NCAA tournament appearance for Louisville, and the Cards own three championship banners. They finished No. 17 in the NET rankings (USF was 45th).

Head coach Pat Kelsey resurrected the program after the Cards uncharacteristically had three consecutive losing seasons under head coaches Chris Mack and Kenny Payne. Kelsey came on last year and led the team to a 27-8 season. That was two more wins than they had over the previous three years combined.

Louisville comes into this game with a 23-10 record. while the Bulls are 25-8 and riding an 11-game winning streak. If USF wins, that will set a single-season program record for victories.

For the Cards, the big question is whether standout point guard Mikel Brown Jr. will be available. He missed Louisville's last four games with a lower back injury.

"He made great progress last week," Kelsey said Monday on SI.com. "We'll see how the next couple days of practice go."

USF obviously has Louisville''s full attention.

"They're red hot," Kelsey said of the Bulls. "They've won 10 or 11 consecutive games. They have a Conference Player of the Year, the Conference Defensive Player of the Year, the Conference Newcomer of the year. They are top five in the country in offensive rebounding.

"They have two of the best three-point shooters in the entire country. They have two guys that have made over 100 threes. They play very fast. They're extremely dangerous, and a team that's red hot playing their best basketball at the right time of the year."

The Cardinals have a pair of former USF players on their roster -- forward Kasean Pryor and guard Ryan Conwell.

Conwell, who was with the Bulls as a freshman for the 2022-23 season, is averaging 18.7 points per game. Louisville is his fourth collegiate stop after he attended Indiana State and Xavier after leaving USF.

"Coincidentally, with me having gone (to USF) my freshman year, I kept up with them a little bit," Conwell said at a media briefing. "Watching some of their games, I know they play really hard. They have some skilled guards and they're really good at rebounding. I'm excited for the challenge and I think we'll be ready."

Bulls fans will remember how Pryor was a hair-on-fire player for the Bulls 2023-24 season. He was a key figure in USF's first regular-season conference championship before transferring to Louisville. His first season with the Cardinals ended after seven game because of a torn ACL

He has seen limited playing time this season

As a team, the Cards shoot 47 percent from the field and, according to NCAA stats, average 19.54 bench points per game compared to 20.5 for USF.