Louisville, Pat Kelsey Not Letting 'Rat Poison' Impact Them as Postseason Draws Near

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - As far as collegiate athletics goes, Nick Saban is arguably one of the best head coaches in the history of the NCAA. While the former Alabama head coach has more national championships and All-Americans than some programs do, another accomplishment of his was popularizing the phrase "rat poison."

During his time with the Crimson Tide, Saban mastered the art of not letting outside noise - AKA, rat poison - impact what his team did on the field. Whether that be fans and the media criticizing a recent performance, or even praised what they were doing as of late, Saban always communicated to his players - and the media - that they kept their guard up from both negative and positive feedback alike, and simply focused on the task at hand.

So what does this have to do with the Louisville men's basketball program? Head coach Pat Kelsey and his Cardinals are starting deal with the aforementioned rat poison, and not the kind they dealt with in the preseason when they were perceived as a Final Four contender.

Not too long ago, Louisville seemed to be peaking at the right time. Following a beatdown by the hands of Duke back on Jan. 26, the Cards then fired off a five-game winning streak, which included a historic 41-point beatdown of NC State and a neutral site win over Baylor. At the time, they seemed to be trending in the right direction.

But recently, Louisville has taken a step back. They've lost two of their last three games, losing 95-85 at SMU and most recently 77-74 at North Carolina. Sandwiched in between was an 87-70 win at home vs. Georgia Tech that certainly didn't feel like a 17-point win.

Louisville two most recently losses have caused consternation amongst the fanbase for one chief reason: UofL is now just 0-7 in Quad 1A games. With the NCAA Tournament just around the corner, the Cardinals continuing to show that they struggle against the very teams they will face in the Big Dance if they want to go on a run, has had segments of the fan base up in arms. Hence, the rat poison is building.

Speaking to the media on Friday for Louisville's pregame press conference ahead of their Saturday matchup at Clemson, Kelsey made one thing clear: this team is not letting it impact them.

"We don't listen to rat poison," he said. "We do our best to just worry about us, and understand that that's, how the world works. Do we understand winning a big game on the road against a really good team helps our overall makeup and resume? Yes.

"We have really intelligent guys in that locker room. ... They understand what that does if you beat a good team on the road. It's really good for out resume. The pizza tastes better, the flowers smell better, the clouds clear and the sun comes out. Winning a game on the road does a lot of good things for a lot of people."

Point guards Mikel Brown Jr. and Kobe Rodgers backed up this sentiment in the press conference, with Brown emphasizing that "we don't listen to the outside world, and we just focus on what we got to do to get better." That being said, they also acknowledge a need to regroup down the stretch and make improvements certain aspects of their game.

Most notably, Louisville's two-point defense has taken an absolute nosedive. After having one of the better statistical two point defenses in the sport, allowing just 45.7 percent of their opponents' two-point tries over the first 25 games of the season, SMU, Georgia Tech and North Carolina combined to shoot 61.8 percent on twos.

"I think it's just a team effort of more concentration and more overall focus," Rodgers said of Louisville's recent two-point defense. "If you see how we practice every single day, and how we go over scouting every day, you'd be like, 'There's no way that they're allowing this to happen.' That's kind of exactly how we feel.

"I think with this weekend, over the last couple days, we've really just kind of taking a step back and try to really talk to ourselves, and figure it out amongst ourselves, to see what we need to get done and how we're gonna get it done."

During and just before their five-game winning streak earlier this month, Kelsey stressed the importance of being the more desperate team, and that message was very clear on the floor. During this three game-stretch, the desperation has waned some, and has been very touch and go.

The best example is the most recent game at UNC. In what was just a one-possession game at halftime, UofL missed their first 10 tries of the second half, allowing Carolina to mount a 17-2 run to start the period and pull ahead by as much as 16. While Louisville was able to slowly trim into the deficit, and even have a chance to win in the final minute, the desperation they showed in the final 10 minutes of the second half was sorely lacking in the first 10.

"That's the thing about basketball," Kelsey said. "There's ebb and flows. ... One thing that we preach. and that we believe. is that whatever's happening in the game, is trying to separate the next four minute battle from the one previous. That's what we have to be able to do better.

"If you look at the Carolina game, for instance, in the second half, there was a lull- I don't know if lull is the right word. But right out of halftime down to the 10 minute mark or so, we didn't catch ourself after that first four minute battle and come out of the media (timeout). But we did eventually, which is maybe it was a little too, little too late. But one thing that I was pleased with, not that it's any type of moral victory, is we got down 16 and we really battled (back)."

But while Louisville has run into recent hiccups, and the fanbase is starting to get concerned about a team that had preseason Final Four aspirations but has struggles to beat NCAA Tournament teams, Kelsey believes in his team. Not only that, he made it clear that himself, his staff and his players know the expectations at a place like Louisville.

"Our guys are very, very well aware of their place in history here. This history, this is steeped in in greatness. and in championships. They're well aware of the city that they reside in, and how much our basketball program means to this city, and to our fan base, and to those former players and to those great teams, they are very well aware of that. ... We understand the pride."

"Louisville is different. It's different. It's different than almost any other place in the country. We have this major metropolitan city where the epicenter is our basketball program, and our athletic department. They take great pride in that. If we go down, we're going to go down freaking swinging and fighting with everything we got. But these guys want it really bad, and we're going to do our best to get there, to be cooking with grease at the time where it matters the most.

Louisville (20-8, 9-6 ACC) will be back in action this Saturday when they make the road trip to Littlejohn Coliseum to face Clemson (20-8, 10-5 ACC). Tip-off between the Cardinals and Tigers is slated for 2:00 p.m. EST.

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