Pat Kelsey sees similarities between Kentucky and Louisville: 'In a lot of ways, they're a lot like us'

Pat Kelsey isn’t a big believer in the AP Poll, but he is a big believer in what the analytics have to say. And while we’re only two games into the 2025-26 season, the Louisville head coach is fully aware that Kentucky recently checked in at No. 1 in KenPom’s latest rankings.

“Obviously, they’re very good,” Kelsey said Monday morning during his pre-Kentucky press conference. “KenPom has them the number one team in the country for a reason. They’re very talented, they’re very good on both ends of the floor. They’re very well-coached and it’s a big challenge, and we’re excited about the opportunity.”

Kentucky and Louisville will go head-to-head in the Battle of the Bluegrass on Tuesday night in the KFC Yum! Center (8:00 p.m. ET | ESPN). It’ll mark the second time that Kelsey and Wildcats head coach Mark Pope meet in this rivalry setting. Last season’s edition ended up in Kentucky’s favor, 93-85, with Lamont Butler scoring 33 points on a perfect 10-10 shooting mark.

But both teams will bring different-looking rosters into this season’s showdown. Only a quarter (25.7 percent, to be exact) of the minutes played from last season’s Louisville roster returned for 2025-26. For Kentucky, that figure is only at 30.6 percent. And yet, they both managed to reload (and upgrade) through the transfer portal and high school level, resulting in rosters that began the season ranked among the top 15 teams in the country.

Kelsey even sees similarities between his second Louisville team and Pope’s second Kentucky team.

“What stands out is they’re very good. They’re very well-coached, they have positional size, they’re strong, they’re athletic, they’re physical from a defense perspective, and they’re good in their system from an offensive perspective,” Kelsey said. “In a lot of ways, they’re a lot like us: they’re talented, they’re very deep, they play very fast on the offensive end, they’re very good in transition, and in the halfcourt they execute and they run their stuff.”

On paper, you can see those similarities between the two in-state schools. They boast two of the most efficient offenses in the country, but haven’t been lights out from long range through a pair of games each. Both teams play fast, but Louisville is a step up from Kentucky, currently ranking third in KenPom’s average possession length at just 12.8 seconds. Meanwhile, the Wildcats have been a top five defense, while the Cardinals are inside the top 40. UK has 10 guys averaging more than 10 minutes per outing (not including the injured Trent Noah), while UL has 11.

Kelsey and Louisville will also see a familiar face when they take on Kentucky. Point guard Jaland Lowe spent the last two seasons in the ACC at Pitt before transferring to UK. Last season, a bad Panthers team dropped both games against UL, but Lowe played well in spite of that. He went for 24 points and six assists in January before dropping 16 points, 10 rebounds, and five assists in March.

“He’s a terrific player. Terrific point guard,” Kelsey said of Lowe. “Very explosive, very good in the pick-and-roll, quick burst, veteran, has been a part of a bunch of big games, very well-coached. Obviously we have a familiarity with him because we played him a couple of times last year, but he presents a lot of problems and we have to do a great job with him.”

Lowe vs. Louisville star freshman Mikel Brown will be one of the many in-game storylines happening once the ball is tipped in under 36 hours. We should be in for a tight battle from start to finish. There is certainly some much-needed juice being re-injected into his rivalry.

Join KSR Plus! With a KSR Plus membership, you get access to bonus content and KSBoard, KSR’s message board, to chat with fellow Cats fans and get exclusive scoop.