With the Louisville men's basketball team working on the court to rebound from the worst season in modern program history, the Cardinals' 2023-24 schedule is complete.

This is Kenny Payne's first crack at crafting a schedule as a head coach after inheriting what he called a "daunting" 2022-23 campaign, which ended with only four wins, a program-record 28 losses and seven scholarship players entering the NCAA transfer portal.

"I think we have a competitive schedule," Payne said in July. "I think that it's important that we play competitive teams, teams that are really good; but it's also important that we play teams where we learn about ourselves. I think we have a good mix of both, but I also feel like it's only a good mix if the players digest it a certain way."

The Cardinals' season tips off with the Red and White intrasquad scrimmage at 7 p.m. Oct. 11 at the KFC Yum! Center. Tickets went on sale at 10 a.m. Sept. 20 on Ticketmaster.com, with lower-level seats priced at $10 apiece. Season ticket holders and U of L students can get into the event free — for more details, click here.

There will be no Louisville Live preseason tipoff event for the men's and women's teams this year. U of L in a statement said it's "opting to take a break" from the flashy pep rally, which has been held at venues such as Fourth Street Live!, Churchill Downs and Slugger Field since its inception in 2018, "before determining the next iteration."

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Louisville's two exhibitions will be played against in-state opponents: Simmons College and Kentucky Wesleyan. The regular season begins at 7 p.m. Nov. 6 with a home game against UMBC. The Cardinals then host Chattanooga and Coppin State before heading to New York City for the Empire Classic tournament, which runs from Nov. 19-20.

In the Big Apple, U of L drew a first-round matchup against Texas — its first against the Longhorns since 1997 — at 3 p.m. Nov. 19 (ESPN). Depending on how that game goes, it will get either reigning national champion Connecticut or Indiana in the tournament's championship (7 p.m., ESPNU) or third-place game (4:30 p.m., ESPNU) the following day.

Upon returning from New York, the Cardinals wrap up November by welcoming New Mexico State and crosstown foe Bellarmine to the Yum! Center. December begins with an ACC game at Virginia Tech, followed by the team's one and only true nonconference road game, a trip to Chicago to face DePaul as part of a home-and-home series.

After home matchups against Arkansas State and Pepperdine, the nonconference slate culminates in Louisville's annual rivalry game against Kentucky, which tips off at 6 p.m. Dec. 21 (ESPN) at the KFC Yum! Center.

After last year's Battle of the Bluegrass was held on the final day of 2022, this year's edition of Cards vs. Cats will be the earliest since 2016, when 10th-ranked Louisville beat No. 6 Kentucky 73-70 at the Yum! Center in a game that went down to the final minutes.

Due to crowd-size restrictions enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic, only 3,281 fans attended the last U of L-UK game held at the Yum! Center on Dec. 26, 2020. That was the Cardinals' last win in the rivalry, a 62-59 victory behind a game-high 20 points from Carlik Jones. They hold a 2-8 record in the past 10 matchups.

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Louisville won two nonconference games last season, against Western Kentucky and Florida A&M. Its two other victories came in ACC play — against Georgia Tech and Clemson.

The only scholarship holdovers from the 2022-23 squad are guard/forward Mike James and forwards Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, Emmanuel Okorafor and JJ Traynor.

Payne replaced his seven transfer portal departures with eight newcomers — an incoming collection of talent that ranks among the top 10 on 247Sports' national leaderboard. They include four high school signees (Dennis Evans, Kaleb Glenn, Ty-Laur Johnson and Curtis Williams Jr.), three second-year players from the portal (Skyy Clark, Danilo Jovanovich and Tre White) and one third-year player from the junior college ranks (Koron Davis).

Here's a look at the schedule:

Louisville men's basketball 2023-24 nonconference schedule

*TV assignments are to be determined, unless noted otherwise.

Wednesday, Oct. 11: Red and White scrimmage, 7 p.m.

Wednesday, Oct. 18: vs. Simmons College (exhibition), 7 p.m., ACC Network Extra

Monday, Oct. 30: vs. Kentucky Wesleyan (exhibition), 7 p.m., ACC Network Extra

Monday, Nov. 6: vs. UMBC, 7 p.m., ACC Network Extra

Friday, Nov. 10: vs. Chattanooga, 7 p.m., ACC Network Extra

Wednesday, Nov. 15: vs. Coppin State, 7 p.m., ACC Network Extra

Sunday, Nov. 19: vs. Texas (Empire Classic at Madison Square Garden, New York City), 3 p.m., ESPN

Monday, Nov. 20: vs. Connecticut or Indiana (Empire Classic at Madison Square Garden, New York City), at either 4:30 p.m. or 7 p.m., ESPNU

Sunday, Nov. 26: vs. New Mexico State, 1 p.m., ACC Network Extra

Wednesday, Nov. 29: vs. Bellarmine, 8 p.m., ACC Network Extra

Saturday, Dec. 9: at DePaul, TBD

Wednesday, Dec. 13: vs. Arkansas State, 8 p.m., ACC Network

Sunday, Dec. 17: vs. Pepperdine, 2 p.m., ACC Network

Thursday, Dec. 21: vs. Kentucky, 6 p.m., ESPN

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Louisville men's basketball 2023-24 ACC schedule

Sunday, Dec. 3: at Virginia Tech, 4 p.m., ACC Network

Wednesday, Jan. 3: at Virginia, 7 p.m., either ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU

Saturday, Jan. 6: vs. Pittsburgh, noon, The CW

Wednesday, Jan. 10: at Miami, 7 p.m., ACC Network

Saturday, Jan. 13: vs. N.C. State, noon, The CW

Wednesday, Jan. 17: at North Carolina, 9 p.m., ACC Network

Saturday, Jan. 20: at Wake Forest, TBD, either ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU

Tuesday, Jan. 23: vs. Duke, 7 p.m., either ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU

Saturday, Jan. 27: vs. Virginia, TBD, The CW

Tuesday, Jan. 30: at Clemson, 9 p.m., ACC Network

Saturday, Feb. 3: vs. Florida State, 8 p.m., ACC Network

Wednesday, Feb. 7: at Syracuse, 7 p.m., ACC Network

Saturday, Feb. 10: vs. Georgia Tech, 6:30 p.m., ACC Network

Tuesday, Feb. 13: at Boston College, 9 p.m., ACC Network

Saturday, Feb. 17: at Pittsburgh, 6:30 p.m., ACC Network

Wednesday, Feb. 21: vs. Notre Dame, 7 p.m., either ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU

Wednesday, Feb. 28: at Duke, 7 p.m., ACC Network

Saturday, March 2: vs. Syracuse, 8 p.m., ACC Network

Tuesday, March 5: vs. Virginia Tech, 7 p.m., either ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU

Saturday, March 9: vs. Boston College, 5:30 p.m., The CW

Tuesday, March 12, through Saturday, March 16: ACC Tournament (Capital One Arena, Washington, D.C.)

Reach Louisville men's basketball reporter Brooks Holton at bholton@gannett.com and follow him on X at @brooksHolton.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville basketball 2023-24 schedule: Kenny Payne's road next season