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How Louisville coach Pat Kelsey’s energy is infectious
According to Louisville guard Ryan Conwell, Pat Kelsey’s energy is infectious throughout the program. He explains why.
- Louisville basketball was picked to finish second in the 2025-26 ACC preseason poll released Tuesday.
- In Year 1 under Pat Kelsey, the Cardinals finished second in the conference with a regular-season record of 18-2.
- U of L plays exhibitions against Kansas and Bucknell before tipping off the 2025-26 campaign Nov. 3 against South Carolina State.
Louisville basketball put the ACC on notice during Year 1 of the Pat Kelsey era. As Terrence Edwards Jr. proclaimed while leaving the court after a win at Pittsburgh’s Petersen Events Center back in January, “This ain’t the same Ville.”
No, after going from back-to-back last-place finishes in the ACC under Kenny Payne to earning a spot in the conference tournament’s championship game during Kelsey’s first go-around, the Cardinals enter the 2025-26 season as one of the league’s top contenders.
A select panel of media members voted U of L to finish Year 2 of Kelsey’s tenure second out of 18 teams.
Duke, for a third straight preseason, was crowned the favorite to win the ACC — garnering 34 first-place votes. Louisville has closed the gap, however, with 15 voters favoring the Cards over the Blue Devils for the top spot.
U of L was picked to finish ninth in the 2024-25 preseason ACC poll. It proceeded to rattle off a program-record 18 wins in conference play — more than triple its total from Payne’s two years at the helm — to finish one game behind regular-season champion Duke, earning Kelsey the league’s Coach of the Year award.
The Cards fell 73-62 to the Blue Devils in the program’s first appearance in the ACC Tournament’s championship game since joining the conference ahead of the 2014-15 campaign. The season ended with an 89-75 loss to Creighton in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Kelsey returns five members of his inaugural Louisville roster for 2025-26: J’Vonne Hadley, Aly Khalifa, Kasean Pryor, Kobe Rodgers and Khani Rooths. The Cards’ seven newcomers include three additions from the NCAA transfer portal, Ryan Conwell, Isaac McKneely and Adrian Wooley; international big men Sananda Fru and Evangelos Zougris; and freshmen Mikel Brown Jr. and Mouhamed Camara.
Brown and Conwell were first-team All-ACC selections.
“I can’t tell you how excited I am to coach this team this year,” Kelsey said last week at ACC Tipoff. “People talk a lot about the revival team last year. That’s last year; this group has a chance to be special — a special makeup of young men both from an experience standpoint, a talent standpoint and a leadership standpoint.”
U of L enters Year 2 under Kelsey ranked 11th in the preseason AP Top 25. Duke (No. 6) and North Carolina (No. 25) were the only other ACC representatives in the poll. N.C. State and Virginia also received votes.
We’ll find out quickly what Kelsey’s 2025-26 roster is made of. The Cards will play Kansas in an Oct. 24 exhibition at the KFC Yum! Center, and their nonconference schedule features seven teams in the top 75 of BartTorvik.com’s preseason projections: Arkansas (16), Baylor (34), Cincinnati (32), Indiana (42), Kentucky (14), Memphis (73) and Tennessee (13).
ACC play begins in late December with a trip to the West Coast for games at California and Stanford. Louisville will get two shots at Duke during the regular season: Jan. 6 at the Yum! Center and Jan. 26 at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Here’s a look at the complete ACC projected order of finish and the players who received preseason accolades:
Note: First-place votes are in parentheses.
- Duke (34)
- Louisville (15)
- North Carolina
- N.C. State
- Virginia
- SMU
- Clemson
- Miami
- Syracuse
- Notre Dame
- Wake Forest
- Virginia Tech
- Georgia Tech
- Pittsburgh
- Florida State
- California
- Stanford
- Boston College
- Preseason Player of the Year: Darrion Williams (N.C. State)
- Preseason Freshman of the Year: Cameron Boozer (Duke)
- Preseason All-ACC: Cameron Boozer (Duke), Markus Burton (Notre Dame), Darrion Williams (N.C. State), Mikel Brown Jr. (Louisville), Ryan Conwell (Louisville)
- Preseason All-ACC (second team): Isaiah Evans (Duke), Boopie Miller (SMU), J.J. Starling (Syracuse), Baye Ndongo (Georgia Tech), Caleb Wilson (North Carolina)
This story will be updated.
Reach Louisville men’s basketball reporter Brooks Holton at bholton@gannett.com and follow him on X at @brooksHolton.
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