After NCAA denied his eligibility request, Louisville's Aly Khalifa can now play in 2025-26

Aly Khalifa, who was a member of Mark Pope‘s BYU team during the 2023-24 season, will take on his former head coach later this season.

On Friday, the Louisville men’s basketball program announced that Khalifa has been ruled eligible for the upcoming 2025-26 season after his original waiver request was denied by the NCAA in May. Khalifa, a 6-foot-11, 275-pound pass-first center, redshirted the 2024-25 season at Louisville while recovering from knee surgery.

After missing out on the opportunity to face Pope and Kentucky last season (a 93-85 home win for UK), Khalifa will finally have that chance on November 11 when the Cardinals host the Wildcats at the KFC Yum! Center. Admittedly, the video of Louisville head coach Pat Kelsey announcing to the team that Khalifa can play next season is pretty cool.

Had a big team meeting today….

Stay til the end 🫡#GoCards pic.twitter.com/X1q4uTn1s1

— Louisville Men's Basketball (@LouisvilleMBB) June 27, 2025

Khalifa, who hails from Egypt, began his college career at Charlotte for two seasons, where he was named the Conference USA Rookie of the Year in 2021-22. As a sophomore in 2022-23, he had his best statistical season thus far: 11.7 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 2.7 assists in 28.6 minutes per outing. Not known as the fastest or most athletic player on the floor, Khalifa carved out a role as a playmaker and floor-spreader.

So naturally, once he dipped into the transfer portal in 2023, Pope came calling with plenty of interest. Khalifa signed with BYU and started 26 of 29 games with the Cougars in 2023-24. He was Amari Williams before Pope had Amari Williams — someone who initiated the offense from the high post and helped direct traffic. Khalifa averaged 5.7 points, four assists, and 3.7 rebounds in 19.4 minutes per game for BYU.

Khalifa considered following Pope to Kentucky last offseason (a return to BYU was also on the table), but he elected to join Kelsey at the school up the road. Khalifa told KSR during the NCAA Tournament that there we no hard feelings between him and Pope.

“He’s a great coach, that’s what he deserves, that’s what they expect as well from the head coach at Kentucky. It’s his dream job,” Khalifa said in March. “We had a great year last year and this year he’s having a great year. Hopefully it goes on. But I’m not surprised at all. I knew he was gonna be good. He has a lot of great pieces from the portal he got. I wish the best for him.”

The Big Blue Nation should be excited that Khalifa was ruled eligible — there won’t be any room for excuses from Louisville fans when Kentucky wins again this fall.