2026 college basketball in Louisville: a midseason outlook for all five men's CBB programs

Happy New Year everyone! Since it’s the new year I might as well give a midseason outlook for all 5 teams in Jefferson County - please note my knowledge on some of these teams, particularly Boyce and Simmons (since I've only seen one game this year for each of these teams), may be diminished in comparison.

If you're wondering why this post exists, I (this blog's author) am a student at UofL - I try to watch as many local college games as possible if I have time, so here's a little midseason outlook based off what I've seen so far.

Louisville (11-2, 1-0 ACC)

We’ll start with the P4 team. They have three Quad 1 wins, and no losses outside quad one. 

For now, the team’s anywhere between a 3 and 5 seed for the NCAA tournament, and it seems the worst the team can do is matching their 8 seed mark they made last year. They have a massive weakness to a powerful/physical 4 or 5, however - Kalkbrenner took advantage of this last year, and Trevon Brazile has already taken advantage of this when the Cards played Arkansas. They’ll need to see more physicality out of Hadley and Fru if they want to be competitive with the Boozer twins in the ACC.

Louisville’s seeding can be greatly helped and vaulted into the 2 seed range by defeating Duke on Tuesday - however, they’ll have to come away undefeated from their trip to California with a win against Stanford tomorrow to do that, with Mikel Brown questionable.

Notable games left:

Vs Duke (1/6/26)

Vs NC State (white-out game, 2/10/26)

@ UNC (2/24/26)

Bellarmine (5-8, 0-1 A-SUN)

The Knights sit in the mid-200s of the NET and is coming off of a conference opening loss vs West Georgia. This team is a mid-to low tier in the A-Sun, however the conference isn’t as strong as it has been in past years. Winning the conference may be as easy as an upset win in Nashville during early March, and edging out wins from there - after all, this team played UK (without Jaland Lowe) within 20. 

In terms of seeding, Bellarmine would be lucky to avoid playing in Dayton if they were to get the A-Sun auto-bid (they’d be a 16 seed regardless) - however, they’ll need to just focus on avoiding the first round of their conference tournament first.

Notable games left:

@ Lipscomb (1/15/26)

@ Eastern Kentucky (1/17/26)

@ Austin Peay (2/13/26)

Spalding (NCAA D3, 6-5, 1-2 SLIAC)

Spalding has played reasonably well this year, with freshman Lekendrick Morris shining for the team as a leading figure with Devonte McCampbell. They have a rough loss to Harris-Stowe State, but other than that, they’re 1-2 in SLIAC play after close losses and can right the ship with a huge win over Webster on Wednesday. A win over the Gorloks would reaffirm a top spot in the conference, and a chance at winning the conference.

Like Bellarmine, the auto-bid is their best shot of making the D3 tournament - the conference just isn’t that strong this year. They’d be at a 15 or 16 seed should they make it right now if trends continue.

Notable games left:

Vs Webster (1/7/26)

Vs Lyon (1/29/26)

@ Westminster (2/7/26)

Boyce College (NCCAA Division II, 5-7, 1-0 Mideast Region)

They’re 5-7 on the year so far, but for a NCCAA division II team, they haven’t played too bad - they blasted Appalachian Bible College 101-42 in their only regional match of the year and seem about equal (if not a tad better) with Simmons so far despite the record differences. They’re coming off the heels of a competitive bout with UC Clermont, and hit the road against Kuyper Tuesday to start the new year.

NCCAA division II is different from how the NCAA does its competitions, it’s just a straight district/national championship that’s later seeded. Their matches against Welch and Simmons will determine how they’re seeded for the regional championship in Louisville this February.

Notable games left:

Vs Pensacola Christian (1/12/26)

Vs Simmons (1/15/26)

Vs Welch (2/14/26)

Simmons College (NCCAA Division II, 3-10, 0-0 Mideast Region)

Simmons’ first campaign under head coach DeJuan Wheat has been rocky so far, with a lot of close games but very few wins - They held the lead for the majority of the game against a top 20 NAIA IU Southeast, then let it crumble early in the second half. Holding games down the stretch has been a struggle so far for them, but if they can grasp leads, they can make a good run for the regional title. 

Very much looking forward to the first iteration of Boyce-Simmons two weeks from now (at Boyce, the second leg is at the St Stephen center on February 17).

Notable games left:

Vs Welch (1/24/26)

Vs Fisk (2/10/26)

Vs Boyce (2/17/26)