Takeaways from the Return of Louisville Live

The Cardinals' midnight madness-style event made its return after a year hiatus.

The jumbotron at the KFC Yum! Center during the 2024 iteration of Louisville Live / Matthew McGavic

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Following a brief hiatus, Louisville Live made its triumphant return on Friday night.

The preseason event for the Cardinals' men's and women's basketball teams made its comeback after taking the 2023 season off, and the refreshed energy of the Louisville faithful was felt all night long.

Here are some of the top takeaways from the night:

A Return to their Roots

Since its inception in 2019, Louisville Live has been a showcase of the city as much as it has been of the basketball teams. The first two iterations were held at Fourth Street Live in downtown Louisville, it moved to Churchill Downs in 2021, then to Louisville Slugger Field in 2022 before taking a break in 2023.

For the return of Louisville Live, the event made its debut at the place where both the men's and women's basketball programs call home: the KFC Yum! Center. The upper bowl of the 22,090-seat multi-purpose arena might been roped off, but home of the Cardinals had as much energy as it does for a big-time game.

The event, fittingly, kicked off with a rendition of Zach Bryan's "Revival," a song adopted by men's basketball head coach Pat Kelsey as an anthem for his revitalization of the program, and the crowd set the tone for the evening from here on out.

Intrasquad 3v3 Makes its Debut

As part of the return of Louisville Live, a new wrinkle was added to the fold of the event: three vs. three with an intrasquad twist. Each team had two men's players and two women's players, as well as a special alumni player as a fifth.

Black Team had J'Vonne Hadley and Terrence Edwards Jr. plus Ja'Leah Williams and Mackenly Randolph, with Stephen Van Treese as their alumni player. As for Red Team, they featured Koren Johnson and James Scott plus Imari Berry and Anaya Hardy, with Chelsie Hall as their alumni guest.

The teams played a pair of six minutes halves, with a Elam Ending target score afterwards. Black Team went up 12-9 by the end of the two halves, and was the first to hit the target score of 17.

The players obviously weren't going at full speed so not to get hurt, but all-in-all, it was still mostly entertaining event. Especially once it was getting close to the end, and both teams to picked up the effort in an attempt to seal the deal and win.

Reyne Smith Wins Three-Point Shooting Contest

Of course, it's not a midnight madness-style event without a three-point shooting contest. Louisville Live was no exception, and with so many quality shooters in both programs, it did not disappoint.

This year, Kasean Pryor, Reyne Smith and Noah Waterman took part on the men's side of things; while an all-freshman crew of Izela Arenas, Reagan Bender and Tajianna Roberts were the representatives for the women.

It was the standard three-point contest format like you see at the NBA All-Star Weekend: Five racks of balls, five balls each with the final ball worth two points, and 60 seconds to get through it. Each contestant got one round, with the two highest scoring performers moving onto the finals.

Waterman had the most points in round one with 19, with Smith right behind him with 17. Bender barely missed out on the finals with 14 points, Roberts finished with 13, Arenas tallied 10, and Pryor was the lone to only score single digits with six.

Smith went first in the finals and caught fire, at one point hitting six in a row to finish with 19 points. Waterman was only able to follow up with 15 points, giving Smith the three-point contest crown.

Freshman Khani Rooths Dazzles in Dunk Contest

Capping off the evening was every basketball fan's favorite exhibition showcase: the dunk contest.

With Kelsey and Co. bringing in the amount of talent that they did for the 2024-25 season, they certainly had their pick of the litter for the dunk contest. Ultimately, Frank Anselem-Ibe, Chucky Hepburn, Khani Rooths and Aboubacar Traore were the ones who put on display their high-flying acrobatics.

As for the judges? Women's basketball players Jayda Curry, Merrissah Russell and Olivia Cochran, men's basketball legend Darrell Griffith and a student representative from "The Ville'ns" had the task of judging the dunks.

Traore started off with an off-the-glass windmill, then followed that up with a jump over teammate Aly Khalifa for a one-handed flush to punch a ticket to the finals. Rooths pulled off both a windmill and a between-the-legs dunk to get the finals as well. Anselem-Ibe started hot with a baseline up-and-under behind the back dunk, but could not get his second dunk down.

In the finals, Rooths captured the dunk contest victory with a slick behind-the-back dunk. Kader tried for a baseline windmill that had the ball bounce off the side of the backboard, but couldn't get the timing right.

Elite Recruits on Deck

The thousands of fans at the KFC Yum! Center were not the only one in attendance taking in the sights and sounds. Since its inception, Louisville Live has also served as a showcase of the program to potential recruits, and Friday night was no different.

Only two prospects were in attendance for the men's basketball side of things, but both are highly regarded recruits. Additionally, both have ties to the city of Louisville and one of them is the kind of player who has the potential to change a program's direction.

Sherman Oaks (Calif.) Notre Dame forward Tyran Stokes, the No. 1 player in the Class of 2026, was in attendance for Louisville Live, as was four-star '26 Trinity guard Jayden Johnson.

Over on the women's basketball side of things, they had three visitors in town in Indianapolis (Ind.) Lawrence Central guard Jaylah Lampley and wing Lola Lampley plus Danville (Ky.) Christian post Grace Mbugua. Just like when the men's prospects, all three are highly regarded.

Jaylah Lampley is regarded as the No. 38 overall player in the Class of 2025 by ESPN, while Lola Lampley - her younger sister - comes in as the No. 22 player in the 2026 class. As for Mbugua, while she is an unranked 2025 prospect, she averaged 25.7 points and 15.4 rebounds this past season.

(Photo via Matthew McGavic - Louisville Cardinals On SI)

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