If you believe Pat Kelsey And Chucky HepburnLouisville basketball didn’t pay attention to this weekend’s game against rival Kentucky until it picked up a win over UTEP Wednesday night at KFC Yum! Center.
Now for the Cardinals (6-4) first real road game of the season, a matchup against the No. 5 Wildcats (9-1) and first-year head coach Mark Pope at 5:15 p.m. Saturday at the interior Rupp Arenais on the horizon, however…
“The most important game in program history is the next one we play,” Kelsey told reporters after his team rallied to beat the Miners, 77-74. “Three hours ago it was this one, right here. This is the deal.”
“Personally, I’m going to start watching a movie tonight,” Hepburn added, “because I really want this match.”
This edition of the Courier Journal’s University of Los Angeles basketball mailbag sets the stage for the 57th installment of Cards vs. the Cats ; and this one will be unlike any other as the rivalry game became an annual blockbuster of the sports calendar during the 1980s. That’s because, for the first time since 1930, both programs underwent changes in coach during the same offseason.
Louisville has lost two in a row and five of the last six meetings against UK. As of Thursday morning, KenPom.com gave Kelsey and her group of eight healthy scholarship players just a 15 percent chance of upsetting Pope’s team, which is dealing with some injuries of its own.
How will the first chapter of this new era of the Commonwealth unfold? We will start with a question from a reader curious about the clashes in the first zone:
How does Louisville match up against Kentucky’s forwards this weekend? —James Schmitt
Louisville will be at a disadvantage. With Kasean Pryor sidelined for the remainder of the season, it will mostly be like that for the Cardinals until the end.
from Kentucky Amari Williams And Andrew Carr will be a handful. The former, a 7-foot, 262-pound Drexel transfer, is averaging 10.6 points, a team-high 9.2 rebounds and a block rate (8.5%) that ranks 48th in the league. Division I. The second, a 6-11. , a 235-pound Wake Forest transfer who had 18 points when the Cards visited Winston-Salem, North Carolina, last season, averages 11 and 6.2, respectively, with an offensive rating ( 135.8) ranking 62nd nationally.
Both players also had over 20 assists in 10 games. Same for Brandon Garrisona 6-10, 250-pound transfer from Oklahoma State who brings in six points and 5.2 rebounds per appearance off the bench. Then there is Ansley Almonora 6-7, 244-pound Fairleigh Dickinson transfer who shoots 37 percent from 3-point range.
Kelsey can’t match Pope’s depth when it comes to bigs. He’ll have to hope that University of Los Angeles’ leading rebounder, J’Vonne Hadley, can continue to hit above his 6-6 frame; that James Scott can build on his double-double against UTEP; that Noah Waterman can rise to the occasion amid a 2-for-24-3 slump over the last five games; and that its lone freshman, Khani Rooths, can provide a spark while avoiding rookie mistakes.
With a frontcourt as thin as it is, it’s telling that Frank Anselem-Ibe was the only scholarship player not to log a minute in Louisville’s loss to then-No. 9 Duke last weekend – and only had five minutes of action in the first half against UTEP. This is an all-hands-on-deck game, but it hasn’t done enough to inspire confidence.
What do you think of Khani Rooths minutes increasing? — Chucky ball game
As hard as the news of Pryor’s injury hit, it’s the more obvious silver lining: more meaningful minutes for Rooths, who should only improve as the season progresses.
“He has no ceiling,” says assistant coach Thomas Carr said during an appearance on Kelsey’s radio show Monday night. “He rides, figuratively, in a convertible with no ceiling. He can be as awesome as he wants.”
After posting record highs in points (10 vs. Duke), rebounds (six vs. Duke) and minutes (22 vs. Ole Miss) over the past two weeks, Rooths was held to just four points and two rebounds in 12 minutes. and committed a team-high three turnovers against UTEP. But the 6-foot-8, 205-pound Washington, D.C., IMG Academy native made two big baskets: back-to-back dunks that capped a 9-0 run that gave Louisville its biggest advance of the evening with 7:38 to play. regulation.
He also brought a home-court advantage that had been missing since Pryor went down, Kelsey said while recounting a timeout during the Cards’ loss to the Rebels in the SEC/ACC Challenge.
“He came out of that timeout angry and played really, really hard,” the coach said. “(It) gave us some juice and a boost, but we needed more than that.”
He’ll get more as Rooths’ minutes increase.
Do you think Louisville will have an inside player to replace Kasean Pryor? —Shawn Riley
When you want, you can – and Kelsey has no shortage of will.
“Everything is on the table,” he said when asked a version of that question after Louisville’s loss to Duke. “I don’t sleep thinking about which buttons to push to make this team the best it can be. We’re going to scour every inch of the Earth to figure out how we can make our team better. Whether that happens or not, I don’t have any no idea; but I’m willing to try anything.”
There are obstacles to overcome, but it is possible. Remember that former coach Kenny Payne managed to bring in Emmanuel Okorafor from NBA Academy Africa in January 2023 – 19 games into the season.
If Kelsey added a player, I think he would go the international route as well. He and his team, in his words, covered “every inch of the Earth” while recruiting in Winthrop and Charleston. That could pay dividends here. I can’t say for sure that there will be an addition, because everything has to line up perfectly. But if it doesn’t, it won’t be for lack of trying.
Have a question for a future Louisville basketball mailbag?
Follow the instructions below to submit your question:
Questions can be submitted via email (bholton@gannett.com) and X, formerly Twitter, at @brooksHolton.
Contact Louisville men’s basketball reporter Brooks Holton at bholton@gannett.com and follow him on X at @brooksHolton.
This article was originally published in the Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville vs. Kentucky Basketball: UofL/UK Rivalry Game Preview
