'Desperation, Nastiness and Toughness' Earn Vangelis Zougris His First Start for Louisville

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - For better or for worse, Pat Kelsey has been extremely consistent when it comes to his starting five.

For the overwhelming majority of the season, the head coach of the Louisville men's basketball program has sent the same five players out on the floor first. Mikel Brown Jr., Isaac McKneely and Ryan Conwell in the back court, plus J'Vonne Hadley on the wing and Sananda Fru.

Of course, there's been some variance due to injuries. Adrian Wooley has started eleven games in which Brown has been impacted by his back injury. Kobe Rodgers earned a start after both Brown and Conwell had to miss the game at Boston College, and Khani Rooths started a couple games in the first couple weeks of the season.

That changed on Tuesday night against Syracuse.

Wooley started again with Brown's back injury flairing up, with Conwell, McKneely and Hadley rounding out the back court/wing. But for the fifth and final spot in the starting lineup, Kelsey did not go with Fru, instead opting to insert Vangelis Zougris for his first career collegiate start.

Coming over from from Peristeri, Greece this past offseason, 6-foot-8, 240-pound forward/center has largely been an end-of-the-rotation piece for Louisville this season. Heading into the game against the Orange, Zougris had seen action in 21 of UofL's 29 games, averaging 2.0 points and 2.4 rebounds in 8.2 minutes.

That's not exactly a stat line that pops out, but anyone who's actually watched Zougris play in these games knows that he operates with by far the highest motor and most effort on the entire team. Sometimes it gets him into very quick foul trouble or an unforced turnover, but there's no doubt that he does it with his heart in the right place.

Coming off of road games at North Carolina and Clemson last week where Louisville showed a lack of desperation, PK opted to re-evaluate the starting lineup against 'Cuse. While Zougris at times plays with a reckless abandon, Kelsey wanted to reward the fact that he operates with such a high level of effort.

"We always have team 1-5 in practice," Kelsey said. "Team one is the starting lineup and then two, three, four, and five doesn't mean anything, it's just everybody getting reps at the different positions they might play. We just left team one empty and said, 'I don't know who's going to start.'

"I'm not saying the five guys that start were better in practice than the other guys, but I just feel like Zou- as we all know, he's such a passionate player. We talk so much about playing with that sense of desperation, that nastiness and toughness that I keep talking about. Nobody exemplifies that in our program more than Zou."

Zougris earning the start over Fru isn't indicative of something that the latter did wrong. In fact, Fru wound up playing more minutes and out-performing Zougris against Syracuse. Fru finished with eight points, three rebounds, and assist and a block in 21 minutes; while Zougris had two points, three rebounds two assists and three turnovers in 11 minutes.

Fortunately, Fru took the news of his "benching" well when he Kelsey informed him of the decision.

"(Zougris) won the gold jersey last week, so I just thought he deserved it. There was nothing Sunny [Sananda Fru] did wrong. Sunny's such a team player. When I pulled him aside and I said, 'Look, I'm yesterday, I said, I'm starting Zou,' he's like, 'I get it, coach, I'll be ready.' That's power of the unit."

Appearing in 23 games for Peristeri B.C. during the GBL's 2024-25 regular season, Zougris averaged 7.9 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.0 assists, while shooting 68.5 percent from the field - all on two-point tries. He also put up 5.2 points and 3.8 rebounds in six Basketball Champions League games with Peristeri B.C.

Louisville (21-9, 10-7 ACC) will be back in action this weekend, traveling to Miami (23-6, 12-4 ACC) for their regular season finale. TIp-off against the Hurricanes is set for Saturday, Mar. 7 at 2:00 p.m. EST.

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