Pat Kelsey raves about Mikel Brown performance with Team USA

The United States National Team bulldozed through the FIBA Under-19 Basketball World Cup in early July, as it won all four of its games by an average margin of 42 points per game. This included a dominant 73-point victory over Jordan in the First Round and a 33-point victory over Germany in the Final.

One of the major standouts for the United States was incoming Louisville freshman guard Mikel Brown Jr., the No. 7 ranked player in the Class of 2025. Brown led the team in both scoring and passing, as he averaged 14.9 points and 6.1 assists per game. He heads into the 2025-26 college basketball season as one of the most hyped freshmen in Louisville basketball history.

Louisville head coach Pat Kelsey, who led the Cards to a 27-8 record in his first season in 2024-25, raved about Brown’s performance at a media opportunity this week.

“We didn’t get together as a group and watch it but you know everybody was locked in and engaged,” said Kelsey. “Unbelievable opportunity for him to represent his country. To play with USA across your chest… only a few people get to do that and that is one of the highest honors in sports. Obviously they won a gold medal. Obviously I give [Arizona head coach] Tommy Lloyd a lot of credit because I thought he did a phenomenal job with that team. Not only the job he did with that team, but the sacrifice that he made and [Penn State head coach] Micah Shrewsberry made and [Texas Tech head coach] Grant McCasland made and even the guys that were at training camp that weren’t part of the coaching staff.”

The FIBA Under-19 Basketball World Cup occurs every two years. The last Cup took place in 2023, where Spain came out on top with the Title. The United States finished fourth. This year’s World Cup victory marked the United States’ first since 2021.

“I know [Kentucky head coach] Mark Pope was on that, [Michigan head coach] Dusty May and a couple of other guys. But think about how important the summer is to build you team in this new age, and those guys spent multiple weeks (almost a month) away from their team dedicated to those guys and winning a gold medal and representing their country.”

“I thought that was awesome and I thought Mikel was sensational. You guys all watched it. He didn’t get MVP but he sure could have. The thing that’s great about him is that he didn’t give a crap about the MVP… he gave a crap about the gold medal. But everyone who watched that knew how special he was during that tournament.”