Pat Kelsey praises Louisville basketball’s win over Miami Hurricanes
Louisville basketball coach Pat Kelsey praised his team’s 92–89 win against the Miami Hurricanes in the regular‑season finale.
- Louisville basketball enters this week’s ACC Tournament as the No. 6 seed with a favorable bracket draw.
- UofL closed its regular season with an 92-89 win at Miami that provided a key confidence boost.
- The Cards are no longer fighting against their own ACC Tournament history after making the championship game last season.
One Adrian Wooley 3-pointer in Miami just changed Louisville basketball’s outlook in Charlotte.
That’s what March does.
One play can change everything.
Wooley’s shot with 18 seconds left, the Cardinals’ last made field goal in the game, put them ahead for good in their 92-89 win over the Hurricanes. It marked UofL’s first win against a team positioned ahead of it in the ACC standings.
And doing that with guard Mikel Brown Jr. sidelined with a back injury may just be the shot of confidence Louisville needed as it rolls into the ACC Tournament as the No. 6 seed.
The Cards needed that win, in that way.
As much as they all said the right things after losses to Duke and Virginia and North Carolina and Clemson, it would have been natural for some doubt to creep into their psyche.
After going from having a comfortable lead at halftime against the Canes, to trailing late, Wooley erased a lot of pessimism with his lone 3 of the game.
On the list of who in UofL’s rotation Saturday could take and make a big shot in that situation, Wooley was probably way down the order — behind Ryan Conwell, Isaac McKneely, J’Vonne Hadley and possibly Aly Khalifa.
Add Brown back to the mix and they’ll now feel like they can beat anybody.
Of course, Brown’s return for Wednesday’s second-round game against the winner of No. 11 SMU and No. 14 Syracuse is not a given. Although he’s been shooting, riding the stationary bike and doing basketball-adjacent activities, Brown was not participating in full-contact drills in practice as of last Thursday.
The Cards may have to play, as they have for 10 games this season, without Brown in the lineup.
That’s OK, because their side of the bracket is a favorable draw.
UofL cannot face No. 1-seed Duke unless the teams both return to the tournament championship game. The Blue Devils are really the only team in the ACC that has separated itself from the pack.
Everyone else can be beat.
Since Louisville’s first ACC tournament in 2015, one of the top four seeds earning a double bye has lost in the quarterfinal round seven out of nine times. (This does not include 2020, when COVID ended the tournament before the quarterfinals were set to begin, and in 2016, when UofL self-sanctioned itself out of the postseason after earning the No. 4 seed.)
The top seed never lost a quarterfinal game in that span, so that means No. 3-seed Miami, which awaits the winner of the Cards’ second-round game, is on notice.
So is No. 2-seed Virginia, who could potentially be in Louisville’s path in the semifinals. The Cavaliers beat UofL 79-70 on Jan. 13 with Brown out of the lineup.
The ACC Tournament used to bring its own brand of cynicism for UofL fans. After all, the Cards had never made it past the quarterfinals in their history until coach Pat Kelsey led them to the title game in his first season.
To put the program’s sordid record in the conference tournament in perspective, Kelsey’s two wins last season tied him with former coach Chris Mack for the most career ACC Tournament wins in UofL history — and Kelsey has the highest winning percentage.
Surprisingly, Rick Pitino never won a game (in three tries) at the ACC Tournament. Not so surprisingly, neither did Kenny Payne.
That’s no longer a concern for the Cards. They’ve shed the past and can forge a future that would make everyone forget the struggles of the regular season.
That is, if they can take advantage of what March does.
Reach sports columnist C.L. Brown at [email protected], follow him on X at @CLBrownHoops and subscribe to his newsletter at profile.courier-journal.com/newsletters/cl-browns-latest to make sure you never miss one of his columns.
