2024-25 North Carolina Sports Network
Atlantic Coast Conference Basketball Spotlight:
Louisville

By Ben McCormick
North Carolina Sports Network

School: University of Louisville

Location: Louisville, Ky.

Previous Conference Affiliations: Independent (1911-48; 1949-64), Ohio Valley Conference (1948-49), Missouri Valley Conference (1964-75), Metro Conference (1975-95), Conference USA (1995-2005), Big East Conference (2005-13), American Athletic Conference (2013-14)

ACC Member Since: 2014-15

ACC Ranking Among 32 Leagues (KenPom): 5th (2025), 5th (2024), 7th (2023), 5th (2022), 5th (2021), 4th (2020)

NCAA Tournament Bids: 43 (1951, 1959, 1961, 1964, 1967, 1968, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012*, 2013*, 2014*, 2015*, 2017, 2019)
* = vacated by NCAA

NCAA Championships: 3 (1980, 1986, 2013*)

Final Fours: 10 (1959, 1972, 1975, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1986, 2005, 2012*, 2013*)

Conference Titles: 17 (1978, 1980, 1981, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1993, 1994, 1995 in Metro; 2003, 2005 in CUSA; 2009, 2012*, 2013* in Big East; 2014* in AAC)

Conference 1st-Place Finishes: 23 (1967, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1975 in MVC; 1977, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1993, 1994 in Metro; 2005 in CUSA; 2009, 2013* in Big East; 2014* in AAC)

Head Coach: Pat Kelsey (49, 1st season)

As A Player: Wyoming (1993-94), Xavier (1995-98)

Record As Head Coach (Through Dec. 7): 266-125 (.680) in 12+ seasons

Previous HC Experience: Winthrop (2012-21), College of Charleston (2021-24)

AC Experience: Wake Forest (2004-09), Xavier (2009-11)

Assistant Under: Skip Prosser, Dino Gaudio, Chris Mack

2023-24 Record: 8-24, 3-17 ACC (15th in 15-team ACC)

2024-25 Preseason Prediction (Media): 9th in 18-team ACC

2024-25 Record (Through Dec. 7): 5-3, 0-0 ACC

2024-25 Midseason Ranking (KenPom): #52 nationally (6th in ACC)

Upcoming Schedule: #9 Duke (12/8), UTEP (12/11), at #4 Kentucky (12/14), at Florida State (12/21), Eastern Kentucky (12/28), #20 North Carolina (1/1)

Every remnant of the Kenny Payne era at Louisville was wiped clean during the offseason. Twelve transfers, one graduating senior, three assistant coaches and one head coach — all headed out the door.

After finishing the past two seasons with a historically bad combined record of 12-52 (5-35 ACC), the Cardinals are starting fresh. And the man Louisville hopes can lead its once-great college basketball program back to prominence is Pat Kelsey.

Kelsey joins Louisville after three years as the head coach at College of Charleston. He finished his time there with a 75-27 record, while leading the Cougars to back-to-back regular-season and tournament titles in the Coastal Athletic Association. Kelsey was named the CAA Coach of the Year last season, and he was the Big South Coach of the Year during his final year at Winthrop, in 2020-21, as well.

The accomplished head coach brought two valuable transfers with him from Charleston: senior guard Reyne Smith and sophomore big man James Scott.

Despite coming off the bench for the Cardinals, Smith (a three-year starter at Charleston) has tallied 27 minutes per game and is second on the squad in scoring, with 12.5 points per game. Scott is a part-time starter in the interior; so far, he has been an uber-efficient scorer inside, averaging seven points on 85 percent shooting.

Smith and Scott provided a starting point — and a solid starting point at that — but Kelsey had to rebuild an entire roster. While Louisville does have an esteemed history, with three national titles, its recent woes have given the program a losing image as of late.

But Louisville is still Louisville.

“There is that moment, once a day, where you can just stop, get above the trees and realize you’re the head coach at the University of Louisville,” Kelsey told WHAS11’s Kent Spencer. “It’s pretty powerful. It’s pretty cool. I mean, I say it all the time, and it’s the mystique, the story, tradition, championships, a passionate fan base, grew up right up the street, and watched the dynasty during the ’80s. It’s there, that moment once a day, where you get goose bumps and the hair stands up on your arm.”

With or without the brand, though, Kelsey initially had 13 scholarships open and only a few months to fill them.

“Starting from two months ago is kind of a herculean task, as I like to say,” Kesley said in early June.

Kelsey not only filled those scholarships, he assembled a deep, 17-man roster (including walk-ons). The only returning player is graduate guard Aidan McCool, who didn’t score his first career points until March 9, 2024, on his Senior Night.

Notably, Kesley added All-Big Ten defender Chucky Hepburn, a three-year starter from Wisconsin. The 6-foot-2 guard is off to a strong start in his senior campaign. He is leading the Cards in scoring at 15.1 points per game, and he is leading the ACC steals with 3.5 per contest.

Louisville also added talented forward Terrence Edwards, the 2024 Sun Belt Player of the Year, from a James Madison squad that upset #5 seed Wisconsin in the Round of 64 before losing to #4 seed Duke last March. Edwards is off to a solid start in the ACC, putting up nearly 11 points per game.

Other notable additions include: former South Florida forward Kasean Pryor, who is putting up 12 points a night so far; Colorado transfer J’Vonne Hadley, who is averaging 10 points as a starter for the Cards; Noah Waterman, a former starting center from BYU; and Koren Johnson, the 2024 Pac-12 Sixth Man of the Year from Washington.

“I love, first of all, the fact that we have a veteran, mature team, right?” Kesley said. “We have guys that come from programs with winning DNA. We have guys that have logged a ton of minutes at the collegiate level and not just played minutes in high-level college basketball, but had a lot of success and won. And I think in this day and age of college basketball, they say getting old, staying old is very, very important.”

Louisville is certainly a veteran squad on paper, but the Cardinals are still trying to put all the moving pieces together. An impressive 28-point win over then-#14 Indiana showed their obvious promise.

While they have suffered three losses already, all three came to currently ranked opponents (#3 Tennessee, #21 Oklahoma, #23 Ole Miss). With #9 Duke coming to town Sunday, the Cardinals will get another chance to prove they can be an NCAA Tournament team this year.

2024-25 Louisville Cardinals
(5-3, 0-0 ACC; through Dec. 7)

STARTERS  (stats = 2024-25 numbers)

PG Chucky Hepburn, Sr., (6-2/190) — Wisconsin transfer (3-year starter)
31 mpg, 15 ppg, 3 rpg, 54% FG, 83% FT, 34% threes, 36/24 ATO, 0 blocks, 28 steals

G J’Vonne Hadley, Ss., (6-6/215) — Colorado transfer (2-year starter)
29 mpg, 10 ppg, 8 rpg, 52% FG, 73% FT, 31% threes, 12/17 ATO, 1 block, 2 steals

G/F Terrence Edwards, Ss., (6-6/205) — JMU transfer (starter), Sun Belt POY
28 mpg, 11 ppg, 3 rpg, 40% FG, 68% FT, 21% threes, 19/19 ATO, 0 blocks, 1 steal

F James Scott, So., (6-11/220) — College of Charleston transfer (reserve)
19 mpg, 7 ppg, 5 rpg, 85% FG, 44% FT, 0 threes, 9/6 ATO, 10 blocks, 7 steals

C Noah Waterman, Ss., (6-11/230) — BYU transfer (starter)
23 mpg, 7 ppg, 4 rpg, 36% FG, 22% FT, 24% threes, 4/5 ATO, 5 blocks, 3 steals

KEY RESERVES (stats = 2024-25 numbers)

G Reyne Smith, Sr., (6-2/190) — Charleston transfer (3-year starter), All-CAA
27 mpg, 13 ppg, 3 rpg, 39% FG, 83% FT, 39% threes, 4/1 ATO, 0 blocks, 5 steals

F Kasean Pryor, Ss., (6-10/225) — South Florida (starter)
23 mpg, 12 ppg, 6 rpg, 37% FG, 88% FT, 15% threes, 15/15 ATO, 8 blocks, 11 steals

G Koren Johnson, Jr., (6-2/175) — Washington transfer (reserve), Pac-12 6MOY
20 mpg, 3 ppg, 2 rpg, 27% FG, 0 FT, 0 threes, 6/1 ATO, 0 blocks, 3 steals

F Aboubacar Traore, Sr., (6-5/205) — LBSU transfer (3-year starter), All-Big West
18 mpg, 2 ppg, 5 rpg, 17% FG, 50% FT, 0 threes, 4/1 ATO, 3 blocks, 1 steal

F Khani Rooths, Fr., (6-8/205) — Top 50 in Class of 2024
12 mpg, 3 ppg, 3 rpg, 36% FG, 42% FT, 13% threes, 4/7 ATO, 3 blocks, 5 steals

Departures from 2023-24 (12): PG Skyy Clark* (So./transfer/UCLA), WG Koron Davis (Jr./transfer/Louisiana), C Dennis Evans (Fr./transfer/Grand Canyon), WF Kaleb Glenn* (Fr./transfer/Florida Atlantic), C Brandon Huntley-Hatfield* (Jr./transfer/NC State), WG Mike James* (So./transfer/NC State), PG Ty’Laur Johnson (Fr./transfer/Wake Forest), WF Danilo Jovanovich (Fr./transfer/Milwaukee), C Emmanuel Okorafor (So./transfer/Seton Hall), BF JJ Traynor (Sr./transfer/DePaul), WG Tre White* (So./transfer/Illinois), WF Curtis Williams Jr. (Fr./transfer/Georgetown)

* — started at least 50% of Louisville’s games last season
Ss. — “super senior,” playing fifth full season of college basketball