Inside Louisville Basketball’s Top 5 Unforgettable Victories at the KFC Yum! Center – Moments You Won’t Believe!

The KFC Yum! Center is hitting a huge milestone—15 years this October 10th. Nestled at the crossroads of Second and Main, this colossal 22,090-seat arena stands as the largest exclusive college basketball venue without a football stadium doubling up. Over the years, it’s transformed from just another building into a fortress where Louisville basketball has carved out some of its most unforgettable triumphs since opening in 2010. Sure, there have been tough stretches—ticket sales dropped, and losses piled up during Kenny Payne’s tenure—but no arena in the sport packs the kind of electric atmosphere that the Yum! generates under Pat Kelsey’s guidance, who reenergized the crowd and team alike with an impressive 14-3 home record in his first season. To mark the center’s 15th year, I’ve rounded up five legendary wins—each bursting with drama, grit, and that unmistakable Louisville spirit—that define what it means to play—and win—at the Yum!. LEARN MORE

The KFC Yum! Center is celebrating its 15th anniversary on Oct. 10.
The 22,090-seat arena is the largest venue in college basketball that doesn’t double as a football stadium.
Louisville has pulled off some memorable wins at the corner of Second and Main going back to 2010. The five listed below, however, are a cut above the rest.

The KFC Yum! Center turns 15 years old on Oct. 10.

At its best, the 22,090-seat arena can be one of the most intimidating venues in college basketball.

Louisville enters the 2025-26 season with a 204-63 record at the Yum! Center, the sport’s largest home gym that doesn’t double as a football stadium. There have been some lean years lately — roughly 38% (24) of the Cardinals’ losses at the $249 million arena came during Kenny Payne‘s tenure, when average scanned ticket attendance dwindled to 6,504 per game — but Pat Kelsey made quick work of restoring the raucous energy by going 14-3 at home in Year 1.

“When you hear that Yum! roar and the crowd gets on their feet, it really just injects energy into us,” Kelsey said after a Jan. 18 win over Virginia. “It’s such a factor.”

To celebrate the Yum! Center’s 15th anniversary, The Courier Journal whittled down U of L’s most memorable victories at the arena to a list of five: one from 2010-11, two from 2014-15, one from 2016-17 and one from 2019-20.

This trip down memory lane goes in chronological order, starting with the heavy favorite to hold its spot on the list for as long as the Cards call the Yum! Center home:

Louisville Cardinals guard Preston Knowles, left, pressures Marquette guard Darius Johnson-Odom during the second half of a Jan. 15, 2011, game at the KFC Yum! Center. The Cardinals defeated the Golden Eagles, 71-70. Mandatory Credit: Jamie Rhodes-USA TODAY Sports

Raise your hand if you were one of the fans who left the Yum! Center after Marquette took a 65-47 lead over Louisville with 5:44 remaining in regulation on Jan. 15, 2011. Have you forgiven yourself yet, or do you feel as if your surrender sparked one of the greatest comebacks in program history?

How far did you get before Preston Knowles went unconscious? The senior guard from Winchester drained a 3-pointer at the 5:11 mark, then another at 3:56 … and another at 1:55 … and another at 1:23.

When it mattered most, though, with the No. 18 Cards trailing 70-69 and three Golden Eagles defenders up in his grill, Knowles passed the ball to Kyle Kuric, who converted a go-ahead layup with only four seconds on the clock. Marquette’s Jimmy Butler missed a 13-footer as time expired, and the “Miracle on Main” was born.

“I’m shaking still,” Rick Pitino told reporters afterward. “That went by so quick. All of a sudden, we won the game.”

The front page of The Courier Journal's sports section on Jan. 16, 2011, after Louisville basketball rallied from an 18-point deficit with 5:44 remaining in the second half to beat Marquette, 71-70, at the KFC Yum! Center. Preston Knowles scored a game-high 17 points.

What makes this win even more legendary is the fact that Knowles didn’t practice the day prior due to back pain. “Quick steps or quick movements kind of hurt,” he told reporters afterward. “As soon as I sit down, it sort of tightens right back up.”

He finished with a game-high 17 points on 6-for-13 shooting with four rebounds, three assists and two steals in 37 minutes.

“Preston looked at me today like he wasn’t going to play,” Pitino said. “During the walkthrough this morning, Preston said, ‘Am I going to do this?’ And I said, ‘Do you think you’re not playing? You’re not coming out today, so, if your back’s bothering you, you better get over it.'”

Former Courier Journal columnist Rick Bozich said it best in his piece from the game: “Knowles got over it all right. Marquette might never get over it.”

The crowd is into it after Louisville's Montrezl Harrell gets one of his dunks against North Carolina during a Jan. 31, 2015, game at the KFC Yum! Center. The Cardinals defeated the Tar Heels, 78-68.

How about another 18-point comeback?

This time, Louisville trailed North Carolina 43-25 entering the final 17:51 of regulation on Jan. 31, 2015, in front of an announced “White Out” crowd of 22,418. “The only ones who really believed,” Pitino quipped afterward, when asked about the atmosphere in the Yum! Center, “were the people at the Marquette game.”

Montrezl Harrell made believers out of everyone. Both Pitino and Tar Heels coach Roy Williams needed only one word to encapsulate the big man’s second-half performance: “possessed.” Harrell scored 14 of his 22-point, 15-rebound double-double after the break; and the No. 10 Cards surged past No. 13 UNC in overtime, 78-68.

“We fed off his energy,” said Terry Rozier, who had a 22-point, 10-rebound double-double and fell one minute shy of tying Harrell with a game-high 44. “He did a good job of just talking to us, bringing us in. His energy was just through the roof.”

The spark? Pitino said Harrell was still “disappointed” in his play 21 days earlier, when U of L squandered a 13-point lead with 8:43 remaining in the second half at the Dean Smith Center — a homecoming of sorts for the Tarboro, North Carolina, native.

Chris Jones added 17 points, seven of which came during an overtime period Louisville won 18-8, and a team-high four assists. He and his teammates also combined for 10 steals and dominated the offensive glass, 22-13.

The rims were the story before tipoff. Aided by statistics that showed the Cards were shooting 8.3% worse at home than on the road, Rozier spearheaded an effort to get them loosened. They were measured and found to be up to standard.

That’s not what got U of L back into this one, though. Pitino reminded his players, “This is about defense no matter what you do.” They clawed within single digits by forcing eight Tar Heels turnovers during a six-minute stretch.

“They just competed harder than we did (on) both ends of the floor,” UNC guard Marcus Paige said. “We thought we had the game.”

Louisville is 4-10 vs. North Carolina since this overtime thriller. Kelsey & Co. snapped the program’s five-game losing streak in the series on New Year’s Day.

Louisville's Montrezl Harrell and Mangok Mathiang celebrate after Mathiang made the game-winning shot over Virginia's Mike Tobey during a March 7, 2015, matchup at the KFC Yum! Center.

Mangok Mathiang had made just one field goal between that win over North Carolina and the regular-season finale of his sophomore campaign, against No. 2 Virginia on March 7, 2015, at the Yum! Center. The big man didn’t even attempt a shot in this game until he pulled up from just beyond the free-throw line with less than five seconds on the clock and No. 16 Louisville trailing 57-56.

The ball touched nothing but net with 2.7 seconds to spare, and the Cards held on for a 59-57 victory that both secured a fourth-place finish in the ACC and tarnished the Cavaliers’ perfect road record to that point.

“I was just shocked that I made it,” Mathiang said.

Pitino jokingly called Mathiang the “64th option” in that situation, then noted the underclassman from Sudan had spent “every night for the last two months” working on his jumper because defenders had been backing off of him when he caught the ball at the charity stripe.

UVA guard London Perrantes said he’d let Mathiang take the shot 10 times out of 10. “I don’t want to say I expected him to not make it,” added his coach, Tony Bennett, “but I was OK with the way we defended that possession.”

U of L is 3-18 vs. Virginia since that game-winner. Two of those wins came this past season.

This game is also notable because it was the last at the Yum! Center for Harrell and Wayne Blackshear, the final players remaining from the 2013 national championship team. An announced crowd of 22,788 gathered to send them off. Blackshear opened the game with a 3, and Harrell led all scorers with a 20-point, 12-rebound double-double.

Louisville's Quentin Snider brings the ball up the court against Kentucky's De'Aaron Fox on Dec. 21, 2016, at the KFC Yum! Center.

Quentin Snider‘s father told reporters his son spent two days holed up in his room at their home after Louisville fell to Kentucky, 75-73, on Dec. 26, 2015, at Rupp Arena. The former Ballard High School star “kind of put the whole loss on himself,” he said, after going scoreless and dishing out only one assist in 28 minutes on the stage of his dreams.

A year later, Snider had the game of his life in front of 22,783 on Dec. 21, 2016, at the Yum! Center. The junior guard scored a career-high 22 points on 10-for-19 shooting to power the No. 10 Cards’ 73-70 upset of the No. 6 Wildcats in a game that featured 10 ties and nine lead changes.

The victory snapped a four-game losing streak in the series for U of L — and ended up being only one of three it notched against its archrival during coach John Calipari‘s 15 seasons in Lexington. Snider shined brightest when he crossed over Bam Adebayo and banked in a layup that gave his team a 69-63 lead with 1:44 to play in regulation.

The front page of The Courier Journal's sports section on Dec. 22, 2016, after Louisville basketball beat Kentucky, 73-70, at the KFC Yum! Center. Quentin Snider scored a career-high 22 points for the Cardinals in the win.

“Growing up as a kid, you just have Louisville in your heart,” Snider said after being crowned the game’s Most Valuable Player. “When you go into games and you’re from here, you’re playing for the city and your friends and your family.”

Snider needed a little help from his friends down the stretch. Jaylen Johnson and Donovan Mitchell combined for four points during the final 16 seconds. But make no mistake about it: The 50th installment of this heated rivalry belonged to him.

“I think he’s been looking forward to playing this game again for the whole year,” his father said.

Louisville's Jordan Nwora pumps up the crowd during the last seconds of a 58-43 win against No. 4 Michigan on Dec. 3, 2019. It was the Cardinals' first game after receiving the No. 1 ranking.

We close with the most lopsided win on the list. Louisville, in its first game as the country’s No. 1 team since 2013, led No. 4 Michigan for more than 37 minutes and by as many as 16 points en route to a 58-43 victory in front of a “White Out” crowd of 21,674 at the Yum! Center on Dec. 4, 2019.

It was an ugly game but a beautiful moment for a fan base that sorely needed one. After weathering a scandal that vacated 123 wins, two Final Four appearances and a national championship — and with another that wouldn’t be resolved until 2022 still ongoing — it felt as if the Cards had turned a corner on their journey back to prominence.

“They’ve gone through hell and back,” Chris Mack said afterward, when asked about the electric crowd. “For them to be able to enjoy nights like this, with the three guys honored at halftime, it makes me happy.”

The guys he was referring to? Darrell Griffith, Pervis Ellison and Luke Hancock — the program’s three recipients of the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player award. Fitting, because Mack’s team won by leaning on a staple of those storybook runs: defense.

U of L held the Wolverines to 26% shooting — after they averaged 77.5 points in back-to-back wins over top-10 opponents leading into this one — and had three players grab double-digit rebounds. Jordan Nwora led the way with 12 and scored a game-high 22 points to boot. Steven Enoch chipped in 13 and 10, and he battled Michigan’s workhorse in the post, Jon Teske.

“Rankings don’t really matter, especially this early in the season,” Enoch said. “We did a really good job of being who we are.”

The 2019-20 team ended up being Mack’s best across his four-year tenure — only to have the COVID-19 pandemic upend its chance at a deep NCAA Tournament run. That began the slide to the historic lows of Payne’s tenure, making the high of this win, and what it represented, a cherished memory.

Reach Louisville men’s basketball reporter Brooks Holton at [email protected] and follow him on X at @brooksHolton.