Notebook: Pat Kelsey and Louisville Players on Offseason Changes, Chemistry Building and More

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - In terms of moving pieces go, this offseason for the Louisville men's basketball program has bore a resemblance more along the line of head coach Pat Kelsey's summer leading into year one than it did last offseason. While the Cardinals lost almost every player from last year's roster, Kelsey and his staff were able to supplant those departures with several talented transfer portal and high school additions.

On Monday, Kelsey and a few players spoke to the local media for the first time since the end of the 2025-26 season. They answered a plethora of questions regarding the various new faces on both the roster and bench staff, how the program has improved overall since last season, and more.

While there were a plethora of nuggets from the over hour-long press conference, below are some of the more significant takeaways:

Pat Kelsey wanted to shift his philosophy...

What made Kelsey such a successful head coach at the mid-major level was the execution of his pace-and-space philosophy. He wanted to play at an extremely high tempo, while also putting an emphasis on three-point opportunities that open up as a result of the floor spacing.

Kelsey's scheme has faired very well during his first two years at Louisville, as he is 51-19 since taking over as the head coach. That being said, it has been imperfect. Louisville was upset in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament in Kelsey's first year, then this past season, the Cardinals routinely struggled against top tier competition and only made it to the second round of the Big Dance.

When year two wrapped up, Kelsey knew he had to evolve as a head coach. Instead of loading up on backcourt pieces and three-point shooters, the point of emphasis this offseason was improving their front court and defensive prowess. It's safe to say that Louisville succeeded in this department.

Forward/center Flory Bidunga, the reigning Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, was the centerpiece of Louisville's six-man portal class. This haul also included a fantastic two-way defender in guard/forward De'Shayne Montgomery, as well as impact stretch four Alvaro Folgueiras. Not to mention that five-star center Obinna Ekezie Jr. reclassified to join the program, and center Gabe Dynes is in the frontcourt mix as well.

"There was an intentional approach to increase our length, our athleticism, and in particular, our rim protection," Kelsey said. "I think we did that."

Kelsey's commitment to a philosophy shift was not limited to just a new approach to recruiting. With Thomas Carr and Brian Kloman departing his coaching staff, his two hires to fill these roles - Campbell head coach John Andrzejek and Clemson assistant coach Sean Dixon - have big time defensive backgrounds.

"(Andrzejek)'s been charged with being the coordinator on the defensive end, and is doing a great job implementing our system this summer," Kelsey said. Obviously, having the attention and the backing of the head coach in every single rep of every single drill is really, really important. ... Sean's arrival at Clemson four years ago coincides with the best four years in the history of Clemson basketball, and he had a big part of that."

... while still holding onto some of his principles.

Of course, Kelsey isn't going to throw away every single element that made him successful in the first place. In fact, if anything, one element that he refuses to back down from is the desire to play fast.

"We'll always play fast, we'll always play an up-tempo style," he said. "I always say the order I get, the faster I want to play, so that's not changing."

In fact, the refusal to abandon playing fast was one of the biggest reasons why Jackson Shelstad committed to Louisville out of the portal. The point guard from Oregon and top-20 transfer is one of the fastest players in all of college basketball, and he believes Kelsey's system will help him unleash his full potential.

"When I went to the portal, fit was everything for me," Shelstad said. "Ultimately, that's why I chose to come here. The play style, and obviously, the love and everything they're showing me. I feel like I can really thrive in this offense, and push the ball, make plays for my teammates. It's just a free flowing offense that wants to play super fast, so for me, I feel like it's perfect fit."

With the three-ball, while Louisville will certainly not take as many shots from deep as they did in the first two seasons under Kelsey, they still have a handful a more than capable shooters. Shelstad was 37.9 percent on threes as a sophomore, Folgueiras is a career 35.2 percent shooter and had the game-winner in Iowa's NCAA Tournament upset against Florida, Karter Knox shot 37.7 percent on threes last season, and Adrian Wooley was 41.0 percent in the final 11 games of last season.

Continuity in the the backcourt could play a key role in Louisville's ceiling.

It goes without saying that, partially because of the concerted recruiting efforts here, Louisville's biggest strength heading into the 2026-26 season will be in the painted area. But that's not because their backcourt is lightyears behind them, and Kelsey is still extremely high on Louisville's collection of guards.

Obviously, getting Shelstad from out of the portal was a big time recruiting win, and he is a massive addition to the guard rotation. That being said, Kelsey is also very high on Wooley and London Johnson - who are Louisville's only two returners from last season.

Wooley began the 2025-26 season as the go-to reserve in the guard rotation, and the former Kennesaw State transfer had a little bit of trouble adjusting to life in the ACC. But after being thrust into the starting lineup as the lead ball handler following Mikel Brown Jr.'s injury, Wooleyt slowly became a lot more comfortable despite playing out of position. For year two at Louisville, Kelsey expects Wooley to be a massive factor.

"It's awesome to have Adrian back for that continuity," Kelsey said. "He had an awesome first year here, he was asked to do a lot, he had to change positions mid-year and learn a completely new position, and did an unbelievable job of that. You could see there's a comfort level with him this summer vs. last year when he first got here, and it is brand new. His body's gotten stronger, and he's just always had a very, very good professional approach. ... We expect him to make a big leap this year."

As for Johnson, his season debut will be his collegiate debut, as the former NBA G-League product redshirted this past season in order to get up to speed to the college game. He heads into the season as the backup point guard to Shelstad, and after several months getting ready behind the scenes, Kelsey believes Johnson is ready for a breakout.

"With him being here for several months last year, just his comfort level with system terminology, me. I take a little bit of get used to as well. We're expecting big things from London," Kelsey said.

Early chemistry building efforts are providing early fruitful dividends.

As previously stated, Louisville will have a bunch of new faces on the court this upcoming season. 11 players departed the program in some form or fashion this offseason, leading Kelsey and Co. to bring in nine new faces - six from out of the transfer portal, and three from the high school ranks.

Louisville has a lot of time to get completely familiar which each other as a team, and they are going to need to take advantage of as many summer workout and practice sessions as they possibly can. But so far, they seem to be gelling well together on the practice court.

"On the court, we're so connected," Knox said. "We talk to each other, we help each other out. It's almost like everybody's a coach on the floor, everybody knows what we've got going on. We don't mind sticking up for each other, taking accountability, and getting on each other's backs."

It's not just on the court where strong bonds are beginning to form. The team has been together for less than a month, but they are already starting to forge friendships off the court, and are buying into Kelsey's "25 Strong" culture and mentality.

"It's awesome, it's fun," Kelsey said. "We're three weeks in, we're starting week four today. I love the progress we're making, love the way that the team's coming together. It's a fun group to coach. They seem to be extremely connected. We schedule things that we do once a week, throughout the week, that is planned ahead of time. Whether it's going bowling together, whether it's playing kickball together, whether it's playing golf together - those type of things. But then the things that those guys are doing outside the things that we schedule is really cool as well."

Injury Update

Of course, in sports, injuries are always bound to happen. In fact, two of Louisville's newcomers were dealing with injuries during the recruiting process.

Knox had to have season-ending surgery on his meniscus this past February while still at Arkansas, but that doesn't seem like it will be an issue to start the 2026-27 season. Kelsey announced that Knox is expected to be fully cleared "probably within the next week or two."

With Ekezie, many eagle-eyes Louisville fans noticed that he had not been participating in the practice clips that the program had been posting to social media. That's because Kelsey also announced that Ekezie had surgery on his shoulder "several months ago," and that he was "working his way back."

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Pat Kelsey wanted to shift his philosophy...

... while still holding onto some of his principles.

Continuity in the the backcourt could play a key role in Louisville's ceiling.

Early chemistry building efforts are providing early fruitful dividends.

Injury Update

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