Election season is over, but Pat Kelsey is still out there campaigning.
The new University of Louisville men’s basketball head coach knows he has to win over a fanbase starving for relevancy. Kelsey is doing everything he can to appeal to his constituents. At the KFC Yum! Center, they’re giving away replicas of Kelsey’s Tom Ford glasses. Kelsey has been active on social media and appeared in slickly prepared videos. Someone even came up with a slogan: Operation ReviVILLE.
Kelsey and Louisville are doing everything to distance themselves from the Kenny Payne era (12-52 in two seasons). The sting of the worst stretch in the proud program’s modern history still lingers. Many have early bought in, while some are taking a wait-and-see approach.
On Saturday, 16,976 showed up to watch Louisville get crushed by No. 12 Tennessee 77-55. Attendance is trending in the right direction. It was the largest home crowd at the 22,090-seat KFC Yum! Center in seven years. There hasn’t been a sellout since 2017, when Rick Pitino patrolled the sidelines.
Pitino made the Cardinals matter, delivering the 2013 national championship. However, since he was fired in 2017 due to NCAA violations that occurred under his watch, there’s been a parade of substitute teachers: David Padgett, Chris Mack, and Payne.
Kelsey is the latest hope to break the cycle. It’s difficult to muster too much excitement over a man who wasn’t even on the top of athletic director Josh Heird’s ambitious wish list. Scott Drew and Dusty May said no. Of course, that doesn’t mean Kelsey won’t be the right man for the job.
Early results are encouraging. On paper, Louisville looks improved. On the court, Louisville looks improved. However, it’s early. With two games in: are these Cardinals closer to the team that beat Morehead State 93-45, or are they closer to the team that was overmatched against Tennessee?
We know one thing. Any hopes for a quick fix were extinguished after Saturday. The transfer portal and NLI money can only go so far for a program bereft of recent stability or success, especially with a coach whose previous stops include Winthrop and Charleston. Also, he has never won an NCAA Tournament game (0-4).
Kelsey has a lot to prove and so do his players. Louisville takes a ton of three-point shots (37.5 per game, fifth-most in the nation). The Cardinals have missed several (21-of-75). Their top scorer and senior guard Reyne Smith (15 points per game), a Charleston transfer who followed Kelsey, has taken just two shots inside the arc. Second-leading scorer and senior forward Kasean Pryor (12 ppg), a South Florida transfer, has missed 9-of-10 long-range shots.
The Cardinals are going to live and die by the three. That makes sense in an analytics-driven basketball world. The strategy also leaves them susceptible to being blown out if they can’t knock down shots. Louisville was 10-of-39 from three-point range against Tennessee.
It’s premature to make any sweeping assessments about this team. Kelsey will have over a week to tinker before the next game when the Cardinals host Bellarmine on Nov. 19. They should be 3-1 before their next big test: against No .16 Indiana in a Battle 4 Atlantis opener in the Bahamas on Nov. 27.
Gradual improvement and postseason contention are reasonable expectations of Louisville in Kelsey’s first season. The Cardinals haven’t won more than 13 games since the start of the pandemic. They were picked to finish ninth in the ACC preseason poll.
Politicians are judged by delivering on their promises. So are coaches. The Kelsey campaign needs to deliver.