On March 28, 2024, a new era of Louisville Basketball began.
After a coaching search longer than Cards fans had hoped, the long wait was over.
UofL President Kim Schatzel said that she was “confident that we got this right.”
Athletic Director Josh Heird described Pat Kelsey as a leader, winner, and someone willing to embrace everything the University of Louisville has to offer. “This guy sitting up here is a winner in everything that he does,” Heird said at the press conference.
Instead of putting pressure on the fan base to be there for him, Kelsey embraced the expectations from the beginning. “Who are you? A fan base. You make us great…I get you’re very knowledgeable, very opinionated and that’s what I signed up for. Bring it,” Kelsey exclaimed.
Kelsey brings a 68.1% winning percentage, five conference tournament championships, and a top-ranked transfer portal class with him. He has already made a huge impact on the city of Louisville.
Pat Kelsey has hit the ground running in just over a month in the Ville. Since his arrival, he’s made himself available to local and national media, including appearances on the ACC Network, 93.9 The Ville radio, also interacting with fans on Twitter/X Spaces. Kelsey has been to Cards’ baseball games, visited with different UofL teams, and attended the Spring Game, Thunder Over Louisville, and the Kentucky Derby. These are things you would expect to see a coach do, but Cards fans haven’t seen this for a few years now. The city has opened itself up to Coach Kelsey, and he has fully embraced it.
Kelsey has quickly assembled a solid staff, some of whom were former assistants, and has wasted no time on the recruiting trail.
The past few years of Louisville Basketball have played a major economic effect in the city. For example, the downtown restaurant, Troll Pub Under the Bridge, has lost 60-70% of gameday revenue over the past year. The loss of profit from businesses across Louisville has been a devastating rippling effect resulting from the previous seasons.
In the past two seasons, the attendance for Louisville Basketball games averaged about 6,000 people. For instance, the KFC Yum Center! has a capacity of around 22,000. The Yum! is used to being packed, but it’s been more of a ghost town recently. For a program of this nature, 6,000 clearly won’t cut it. Now, for attendance to get back to what it was, Louisville has to win, period. But for now, Kelsey has fans excited again for basketball for the first time in years, and fans are ready to cheer on the Cards.
It is without a doubt that the importance of this hire not only has to do with the success of the program, but also the success of the city.
Pat Kelsey and this new era of Louisville Basketball has re-energized the fanbase again and hopefully with that, things will be normal again for Louisville the program, and the city.
Kelsey has the city ready for its ReviVille.
