WATCH: Louisville coach Pat Kelsey hypes students to attend much-awaited Tennessee clash at home
Saturday featured a marquee matchup between the Tennessee Volunteers and Louisville Cardinals, and Pat Kelsey wanted to ensure students were excited for it. The day before the game, Kelsey took time to walk around campus, greeting students and the Louisville community while encouraging them to support the team against a powerhouse program.
His mission seemed to be successful. The KFC Yum! Center, able to seat 22,090 people for basketball teams, saw 16,976 attend the anticipated matchup. This means 76.8% of the arena's seating was filled.
Unfortunately for Louisville, the solid attendance would be the only positive from the home game, as they fell 77-55 to the Volunteers. The Cardinals had no answer for Zakai Ziegler and Chaz Lanier, who combined for 38 points as they made 14 shots from both inside and outside the arc.
Not to mention that Louisville's offense was cold, only making 16 out of 60 shots for an efficiency of 26.7%. Their perimeter shooting also suffered, converting 10 triples on 39 attempts for a low success rate of 25.6%. Fans were disappointed as they hoped for a better offensive performance against a well-known opponent like Tennessee.
Pat Kelsey's time with Charleston, expectations with Louisville this year
Pat Kelsey has had two previous stops as head coach before going to Louisville, those being with Winthrop and Charleston.
He coached at Winthrop for nine seasons, having an impressive winning percentage of .662 as he led them to two NCAA Tournament appearances (three if the 2020 edition wasn't canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic).
Kelsey went to Charleston in 2021, only building on his progress as a head coach while elevating the Cougars to contention status. He also led them to two berths in the NCAA Tournament, albeit falling in the first round both times. Nonetheless, he finished his stint at Charleston with a convincing 75-27 record after three years.
Now with Louisville, he looks to get the program back on track as they haven't qualified for the NCAA Tournament since 2019, with their last national championship occurring in 2013 (currently vacated by the NCAA).
The last two years have been hard for Louisville, being the worst team in the ACC for consecutive seasons with a combined record of 12-52. Following the 2023-24 campaign, they fired head coach Kenny Payne before going on to hire Kelsey.
Despite the loss to Tennessee, Pat Kelsey and the Cardinals can bounce back in their next home matchup against Bellarmine on Nov. 19 at 7 p.m. ET.