Cards' Future Looking Bright! Kelsey Has UofL On A Path To Even More Success

By RUSS BROWN • Photos Provided By Louisville Athletics 

If you’re a Louisville basketball fan who enjoyed the unexpected ride on the Cardinal Cannonball this winter, you might want to make sure you’re around for the encore because Pat Kelsey has even bigger plans for his second season as head coach. 

Or as he puts it, “We’re just getting started. The best is yet to come.” 

Among other highlights, getting started on his self-proclaimed ReviVILLE building project meant more victories, with a 27-8 record, than U of L had managed in the previous three seasons combined; ending a five-year NCAA Tournament drought; and its first appearance in the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament championship game since joining the league in 2014-15. 

Picked to finish ninth in the ACC, the Cards rampaged through the conference to go 18-2, just one game behind first-place Duke, and they were ranked 21st in both the final AP and USA Today Coaches polls. 

If the Cards were overlooked to a degree by opponents -- at least early in the season after starting 6-5 -- there will be no such surprises in 2025-26 because Louisville returns a veteran core and has added an elite group of newcomers. 

ESPN has ranked U of L No. 3 in its “way-too-early” top 25 for next season behind national runnerup Houston and Purdue. And Sports Illustrated, The Athletic, Fox Sports and others are also outing the Cards as potential national championship contenders. 

Last season, Kelsey had to build a roster from scratch, handicapped by getting a late start in recruiting since he wasn’t hired until March 27. Looking ahead to next year that won’t be the case, with key pieces returning and fortified by a transfer class that is ranked in the top five nationally. 

“We’re excited about what we have coming back,” Kelsey said after losing to Creighton in March Madness. “We’ll do a great job in recruiting, and in the transfer portal, and put a great team together that’s going to compete for a championship. I have all the confidence in the world that that is going to happen.” 

The Cards got a major boost when 6-foot-6 forward J’Vonne Hadley decided to come back for his final year of collegiate eligibility after leading the team in rebounding at 7.3 per game while also scoring 12.2 points per outing and shooting 51.8%. The Colorado transfer, who scored 32 points to rescue a sluggish U of L offense against Clemson, announced his decision to return this way on X: “Unfinished business. Card Nation, let’s run it back.” 

“J’Vonne was one of the hearts and souls of our team,” Kelsey said. “I say hearts plural, because we had a lot of guys who were winning guys, who bought into what we do. He’s such a versatile player on both sides of the floor. He can guard virtually every single position.” 

Also returning will be 6-11 forward/center James Scott, who had the second most dunks in a single season in school history and is a tireless worker; 6-8 freshman guard/forward Khani Rooths; and two players who are coming off redshirt seasons due to injuries -- 6-11 BYU transfer Aly Khalifa and guard Kobe Rodgers, who started for Kelsey at College of Charleston. 

And then there’s 6-10 forward Kasean Pryor, who got off to a hot start in the first six games before tearing his ACL in the championship game of the Battle 4 Atlantis and missing the rest of the season. Pryor will get another season of eligibility, and Kelsey expects him to spend it with the Cards. 

“He’s on our roster,” Kelsey said during a talk at the Kentucky Derby Festival “They’re Off!” Lunchehon. “He’s here. Kasean is one of my guys, like a son to me. I love him. It’s just that in this new world; you have to get things straightened out from a business standpoint. But I love him, I want him, and I sure as heck hope it works out. We’re hoping to have that come to some finality really, really soon here. And I’m very, very confident it will.” 

Joining the returnees will be five highly regarded newcomers in McDonald’s All-American point guard Mikel Brown Jr; 21-year-old 6-11 power forward Sananda Fru; and transfer guards Ryan Conwell (Xavier), Isaac McKneely (Virginia) and Adrian Wooley (Kennesaw State). All three were recruited by a long list of high-major teams. 

“I feel really proud that in a lot of ways, the last two years, before I arrived here, basketball-wise, we had faced some adversity,” Kelsey said. “There were some tough times, and you could feel it within this community. We’re going to miss Chucky Hepburn, Reyne Smith, Terrence Edwards. We’re going to miss those guys. But the best is yet to come. They established something again. They put us in a position to compete for national titles, and that is what Louisville basketball is meant to do.” 

In gratitude for guiding U of L to one of the largest one-year turnarounds in Division I history and making the Cards relevant on the national scene again, Kelsey, 49, was rewarded with a $1 million raise from a base salary of $2.3 million to $3.3 by the U of L Athletic Association’s (ULAA) Board of Directors. He could also earn incentive bonuses for NCAA Tournament success that could amount to a salary increase of $1.4 million with a national championship. 

For gaining a March Madness spot within his first three years, Kelsey received an automatic one-year contract extension through March 15, 2030, and a $50,000 bonus, plus a $25,000 bonus for being named the ACC Coach of the Year. 

“I think we landed in a really good spot,” UofL athletic director Josh Heird said. “This is not a knee-jerk reaction, like ‘oh, this is a one-hit wonder.’ Pat has won almost every year anywhere he’s been if you look at his success at Winthrop and College of Charleston. We expect him to continue to win -- and win in big ways here.” 

As he has done in the past, Kelsey expressed his appreciation to Heird and other UofL administrators for their belief in him. 

“I was just kind of Joe Bag of Doughnuts, a mid-major guy, and Josh took a chance on me,” Kelsey said. “The fear of letting your guys down and just working your butt off every day to make Josh look good, that motivates me every single day. I’m incredibly grateful to President (Gerry) Bradley, Josh, the Board of Trustees and the ULAA Board for their support and belief in what we’re building. The last year has been amazing, and we’re just getting started. We will continue to strive to make Card Nation proud, tirelessly working in our pursuit of bringing a championship back to this amazing university and city.”