Lamont Butler, a "Stone-Cold Killer," gives Pat Kelsey Nightmares

Pat Kelsey had his team ready for this rivalry game. It’s no secret that Louisville is shorthanded with three significant injuries. They trailed by double digits early in the middle of a raucous Rupp Arena crowd, but it didn’t matter. The Cards fought back and made it one heck of a game.

There was just one problem. Kentucky had Lamont Butler.

Every time it felt like Louisville was going to turn a run into a lead, Butler had an answer. Kelsey was blown away, albeit not surprised, by the performance from the Kentucky point guard.

“Lamont Butler was magnificent. I still see that kid in my nightmares cause we played against him when I was the head coach at College of Charleston and he was the point guard at San Diego State. We played an epic battle in the first round,” the Louisville head coach said after the loss.

“He’s just a warrior, he’s a winner. He’s been out the last couple of games and there was all these — people were talking about whether or not he was going to play and I was like, ‘that Cat’s playing in this game. You can mark that. onedown.’ He is a stone-cold killer and a really, really good player.”

Butler is at his best when he’s attacking off the dribble, creating shots for teammates or getting looks near the rim. He did so much more on Saturday.

“He’s obviously a good shooter, but he’s more of an attacking downhill driver. I want to say, I might have this wrong, he’s got seven made threes on the year and he made six tonight. A lot of them — he made tough shots, big shots. We had momentum and he stopped momentum with a lot of those threes.”

Kelsey is correct. Butler nearly doubled his made threes on the year in the win over Louisville, knocking down six from downtown and all ten of his field goal attempts. It’s the third most makes without a miss in Kentucky basketball history. Don’t look now, but Butler just hit another three in Pat Kelsey’s nightmares.

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