Louisville will hire Pat Kelsey, ending wild coaching search
After a crazy few weeks, Josh Heird has his man, and Kentucky fans have a new coach to cheer against. Pete Thamel and Matt Norlander are reporting that Charleston’s Pat Kelsey has accepted the Louisville men’s basketball head coaching job. The hire is expected to be made official by the UofL Athletic Association’s Board of Directors and announced at a press conference tomorrow at 3 p.m. ET.
Kelsey replaces Kenny Payne, who was fired after two seasons with his alma mater. The 48-year-old has been a head coach for 12 seasons, leading Winthrop and Charleston to a combined 261-122 record and four NCAA Tournament appearances, including two back-to-back as the head man of the Cougars in 2023 and 2024. Per Thamel, his deal with Louisville is for five years.
If you’ve been following this coaching search, you know that Kelsey is far from the Cardinals’ first choice. Scott Drew was Heird’s initial top candidate but turned down the offer to remain at Baylor. Florida Atlantic’s Dusty May then chose Michigan over the Cards, which led to even more chaos this week. Indiana State head coach Josh Schertz was next in line but already has an agreement with Saint Louis. Richard Pitino eventually became the frontrunner until he pulled his name out of the running today. Shortly after, Kelsey emerged as the top candidate, and it will become official tomorrow.
So, what do you need to know about Pat Kelsey? As Adam Luckett outlined earlier today, he is part of the Chris Mack and Dino Gaudio coaching trees, which is pretty hilarious given their history with the Louisville program. Kelsey was an assistant at Wake Forest under Skip Prosser and Dino Gaudio and at Xavier under Mack. Of course, Mack later became the head coach of the Cardinals with Gaudio as an assistant, a run which ended with Gaudio being charged with extortion for threatening to expose NCAA violations in exchange for money during a conversation with Mack, who was secretly recording. Mack himself parted ways with Louisville less than a year later.
Now, the Cardinals will attempt to rebuild with a product of that pipeline. College basketball experts are praising the hire, but after watching just a few videos, we already have plenty of ammo for the rivalry.
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