Last year, Pat Kelsey walked into Louisville basketball’s version of a smoldering wasteland — a proud program buried under years of scandal, losing streaks, and broken fan spirit — and somehow turned it into one of the most thrilling turnarounds in recent college hoops memory. Now, with a roster reloaded, veterans returning, and a “generational talent” freshman on deck, the Cardinals aren’t just hoping to be good… they’re flirting with whispers of a Final Four run. And in a city where basketball isn’t just a sport but a birthright, those whispers are starting to sound a lot like a roar.
We’re not sure anyone, anywhere, did a better job last season than Louisville’s Pat Kelsey, not least of all because he inherited a terrible, dispirited mess of a program.
Recall the recent history of Cardinals basketball.
Rick Pitino was forced out after several devastating scandals. David Padgett took over and did a reasonable job as an interim coach who was dealt a bad hand, but he was not retained after a 22-14 season in 2017-18.
After dismissing Padgett, Louisville hired Cincinnati’s Chris Mack, which seemed like a smart hire at the time.
Mack had two decent years, then Covid hit. In the first Covid season, he finished 13-7 but in the second, scandal hit again in the most bizarre way: former Wake Forest coach Dino Gaudio, who knew Mack from their days as Skip Prosser assistants, turned on Mack when Mack tried to fire him and attempted to extort him over alleged NCAA violations.
Gaudio was ultimately sentenced to one year probation and a $10,000 dollar fine.
For his part, Mack was suspended for six games (because he didn’t follow HR procedures when he fired Gaudio), and by January, he was gone too. Mike Pegues finished the season as another interim coach. He managed a 7-11 run but was just 1-9 in the ACC. To be fair to him, he was in an impossible situation.
After his dismissal, Louisville fans argued for “one of their own” to get the job and public sentiment more or less forced the university to hire Kenny Payne.
That turned out to be a flaming dumpster fire, a disaster of epic proportions. In his first season, Payne finished just 4-28; in his second year, he got to 8-24 and was canned.
It was the first time since World War II that Louisville failed to win at least 10 games and Payne, who is now an assistant at Arkansas for John Calipari, did it twice.
So when Kelsey got the job, Louisville basketball had gone through a tough stretch: the legendary Pitino was forced out after multiple unsavory scandals, Mack had one of his own, two interim coaches struggled to maintain standards and Payne, who starred during the legendary Denny Crum era, managed to burn it all down to the ground.
Needless to say, Kelsey had his work cut out for him. And he rose to the occasion magnificently, turning in a 27-8 season, completely flipping the script. Louisville got hot early, then lost on December 8th to Duke and on February 1st to Georgia Tech.
That was it until the Cardinals lost again to Duke in the ACC Tournament and finished the season losing its first game in the NCAA tournament to Creighton.
Kelsey injected a huge amount of enthusiasm and passion into the Louisville program. Clearly, his players bought in. It took a little while for the momentum to develop, but Kelsey had one of the more remarkable seasons in recent NCAA history.
From last year’s team, Louisville loses Koren Johnson, James Scott, Terrence Edwards, Reyne Smith, Patrick Antonelli, Frank Anselem-Ibe, Chucky Hepburn, Aboubacar Traore, Aidan McCool and Noah Waterman.
Of these, we think only Johnson and Scott transferred, both to Chris Beard’s Ole Miss.
Hepburn is a major loss. That guy had a brilliant season for the Cardinals and was at times a devastating defender. Smith emerged as an outstanding three point sniper. Edwards transferred up from James Madison and definitely had his moments.
The rest can certainly be replaced. None of them are critical losses.
Spencer Legg, J’Vonne Hadley, Cole Sherman, Kasean Pryor, Khani Rooths, Kobe Rodgers and Aly Khalifa are back.
Hadley got 33.1 mpg, 12.2 ppg, 7.3 rpg, 1.8 apg and 0.7 steals. Pryor got 23.4 mpg, 12 ppg, 61. rpg, 2.1. apg and 1.6 steals. Rooths played 13.4 mpg and put up 3.3 points and 3.0 rebounds.
Sherman and Legg got minimal minutes and had minor stats. That doesn’t rule out stunning improvement, but the jury is still out.
Worth noting: Rooths was listed at 6-8 last season; now he’s listed as 6-10. And also worth noting: Rodgers sat out last season to rehab a knee injury after following Kelsey from Charleston. Pryor only got seven games in last year before blowing out an ACL against Oklahoma on November 29th And finally, Khalifa didn’t play at all in 2024-25 but dropped 50 lbs. while recovering from a knee injury.
Louisville picked up three players from the portal: Ryan Conwell (6-3 junior from Xavier), Adrian Wooley (6-3 freshman Kennesaw State) and Isaac McKneely (6-4 junior Virginia). They’re all shrewd acquisitions.
Senior Conwell averaged 16.5 ppg, shot 45.0 percent overall, 41.3 on his threes, and hit a solid 82.8 from the free throw line. He also grabbed 2.7 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.3 steals per outing.
He was also named 3rd team All-Big East.
Wooley had a great freshman year at Kennesaw State, winning CUSA’s Freshman Of The Year. Wooley led the Owls in both scoring and field goal percentage. The only other freshman to do that was Duke’s Cooper Flagg.
Wooley got 33.6 minutes, 18.8 ppg, 5.2 rpg, 3.6 apg and hit 51.2 percent of his shots, including 42.2 percent from behind the line.
He still has to prove he can move up, but there’s no reason to think he can’t, either. Several analysts see him as an eventual NBA player.
Finally, there’s senior McKneely, who ACC fans got to know at Virginia. Let’s be fair if a bit unkind here: McKneely has a chunky build and Virginia probably made him look slower than he really is. It’s going to be interesting to see how he adapts to a running program. One thing is for sure: the kid can shoot. He hit 42.1 percent on his threes at UVA last season. We’re pretty sure Kelsey will know how to use him.
Sananda Fru is not a portal guy. He’s a 6-11/245 lb. big man who played very well in Germany. He’s 21 and will be a junior for the Cards.
Evangelos Zougris, from Greece, is 6-8 and 240. He played center mostly in Europe but will slot in at forward for the Cards although he might spend time at center as well. He looks fairly intense here. Louisville lists him at 240, but at least one site lists him at 265. He hurt his ankle this week in Europe but it doesn’t look overly serious.
The freshman class is looking good too. Kelsey brings in Mouhamed Camar (6-8) from Senegal and Mikel Brown.
Camar is somewhat raw but could carve out an early role as a defender. Patience is not common in the portal era, but if he’s willing to learn, he could have a great career at Louisville.
Brown should, legitimately, be a big deal. In fact, while it’s possible he’s a bit carried away here, Kelsey calls him a “generational talent.”
Is he that? We’ll know soon. But this is polymarket certain: if the kid doesn’t start, it’ll be a major shock. He’s a legitimate candidate for ACC Rookie of the Year and probably projects out to some level of All-ACC.
So what to make of Year II for Kelsey’s Cards?
The most important factor is Kelsey. The guy did an amazing job last season. If he can maintain that sort of enthusiasm and passion, the talent level is there to do much better.
It’s important to remember that last year’s ACC was awful and 27 wins might be inflated. This year’s team could have fewer wins and still be better.
And Louisville has three players – Pryor, Rogers and Khalifa – who are coming off knee injuries.
Even so, it’s hard not to have high expectations for this team. Brown is highly promising and there are multiple candidates to be his backcourt mate. The big guys should, at a minimum, be effective as a collaborative and if one emerges as really, really good, that’s great news for the ‘Ville.
Three point shooting?
Check.
Experience?
Check – Louisville has eight seniors. Two of those are redshirt seniors and two are sixth-year players. There are also two juniors and two sophomores.
Defense?
Preliminary check.
Point guard play?
Check.
Fans dialed back in?
Total check.
When you factor in the vast experience and the brilliant job Kelsey did last season, it’s hard not to like this team’s potential. The one thing that might be a concern is team chemistry. We’re not pointing fingers, but there are a lot of new players, a lot of old players will get new roles and that doesn’t always work out. We’ll have to see.
Last season was a joyride for Cardinal fans. This season, there are going to be expectations.
If – and it’s always a big if – things work out beautifully for Louisville, this team could make a deep postseason run and might be a dark horse Final Four candidate.
Whatever happens, this is going to be a fascinating team to watch.
