COLUMN: Pat Kelsey got it right, building a culture in college basketball
Over the course of Louisville basketball’s “Reviville” season, we all ‘got it’ at some point.
For some of us, before Pat Kelsey coached a game, and another few when the Cards had two separate win streaks of over 10 in his first season.
Kelsey and his first year as the head coach at Louisville was a dream. The Cardinals returned to the national stage and the NCAA Tournament for the first time in five years, having finished as runner-up in the ACC. For a first-year head coach at a blue blood, you have to have that gothca moment, and Kelsey had several.
Confidence was easy to find in the Yum! Center last winter, and it poured onto the city streets once the Cardinals started winning games, but also once a clear culture was established and embraced.
In modern-day college basketball, there’s more to coaching than the Xs and Os. You have to be the CEO of a company, using financial investments and modern-day recruiting strategies to construct a roster, but you’re also expected to lead, build a culture, and win games. Accomplishments headlined Kelsey’s first year at Louisville. He was named ACC Coach of the Year, won 27 games, and brought the UofL back to the NCAA tournament. But nothing matched what he was able to do with the culture inside the walls.
Over the course of his first season as the head coach at Louisville, a program that had won a combined 12 games the previous two seasons, Kelsey’s maxims and catch phrases were evident of that.
In his press conferences, interviews, and radio segments, Kelsey spread the gospel of his Louisville basketball. Those being things like “never delay gratitude” and “the power of the unit”, or “25 strong. Over time, these points were hammered home — to Kelsey’s team, the Cardinals fanbase, and those in the program.
He not only backed it up by winning games, but also proved it with his team’s response to adversity in the early season, with Kasean Pryor’s torn ACL in the Bahamas and Aboubacar Traore’s broken arm. Even in March, the Cards couldn’t catch a break with Reyne Smith missing time and ultimately ending his season with an injury against Creighton. He was dealt the short end of the stick and did everything possible to put Louisville in a position to succeed. The messages were getting across. Louisville lost one game in two months, spanning from January to February.
Kelsey’s goal is to have the No. 1 culture in the country, and “results will take care of themselves”. The Cardinals are headed in the right direction, and the results on and off the floor are proving it.
In recruiting, the Cards have been and are in the running for several top-20 recruits in the 2026 class, and smashed it in the transfer portal, bringing in three of the top transfers in the nation: Isaac McKneely, Adrian Wooley, and Ryan Conwell. Kelsey also had a massive win with five-star and projected top-5 NBA draft choice Mikel Brown Jr. committing to the UofL during the middle of the North Carolina game.
The Cardinals are set to be a favorite in the ACC this winter, while looking to make a deep run in March. This roster has the potential to end up in Indianapolis, and with Kelsey’s relentless energy and motivation to establish one of the best cultures in college basketball makes it more possible.
The ACC’s Coach of the Year quickly started Louisville’s program rebuild. Since the start of the NIL and transfer portal era of college athletics, so many coaches and programs have whiffed. They haven’t been able to grasp it. Bill Belichick and UNC have been an utter disaster that doesn’t deserve the time of getting into. Other blue blood basketball programs have had trouble, too. Villanova and Indiana are already onto another coach, plus Syracuse is a shell of itself. It takes time to be built back up. And quite frankly, it took a long time for Louisville, but with Kelsey, the Cards have a tight grip on the business side of college basketball and how to rebuild a program in 2025.
At Louisville, the rebuild took just one season, and the future is now for the program with massive expectations ahead of the 2025-26 season, one that could define the new era of Cards basketball.
The glasses in the stands, the butts in the seats, and the eyes glued to the TV are all signs of this culture having spread in year one under Kelsey.
