Louisville's Hiring of Pat Kelsey Receives Favorable Grade

The former the head coach at Charleston was hired by the Cardinals following the firing of Kenny Payne

STILL FROM VIDEO: Pat Kelsey was introduced as the Louisville men's basketball coach on Thursday. / Jeff Faughender/Courier Journal / USA

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - While Pat Kelsey might not have been the University of Louisville's first pick to be the next head coach of their men's basketball program, it's hard to ignore how well things have gone over his first month-plus on the job.

Between making inroads with the fanbase and local media after both were largely ignored during the Kenny Payne era, the early recruiting efforts in the transfer portal, and an open mindset to the modern landscape, Kelsey seems to have things heading squarely in the right direction. While he's yet to coach a game and the current roster is not complete yet, buzz around the program is the highest it has been in years.

Because of his first few weeks on the job, as well as his prior resume as a head coach, Kelsey's hiring at Louisville recently received a favorable grade from a well-known college basketball outlet.

The folks over at The Field of 68 recently handed out initial grades for some of the more notable of the new head coaching hires in this cycle. Averaged out between six voters, Kelsey's hiring at Louisville was given a B+ grade.

His grade tied John Calipari to Arkansas, Chris Holtmann to DePaul and Danny Sprinkle to Washington for the fifth-best grade in the cycle. Josh Schertz to St. Louis and Chris Mack to Charleston got A+ grades, while Eric Musselman to USC and Kyle Smith to Stanford both got A- grades. For what it's worth, Kentucky's hiring of Mark Pope received a B- grade.

Related: College Basketball Analysts High on Louisville Following Early Portal Additions

Kelsey came over to Louisville after three years at Charleston, and his last two seasons have been some of his best coaching work. The Cougars are 58-11 during this span, clinching back-to-back Coastal Athletic Association regular season and tournament championships in the process.

In three years with Charleston, Kelsey is 75-27 overall, including 27-8 this season. Kelsey spent the first nine years of his head coaching career at Winthrop. During his tenure with the Eagles, he guided them to an 186-95 overall record, as well as four Big South regular season championships and three Big South Tournament championships.

Since being officially hired by Louisville on Mar. 28 following the firing of Kenny Payne, Kelsey and his staff have hit the portal hard. To counter the defection of all 12 of Louisville's scholarship players to the portal, so far, Kelsey has landed nine transfers.

Guard Reyne Smith and center James Scott are both following Kelsey from Charleston, while James Madison guard/forward Terrence Edwards Jr., Colorado guard J'Vonne Hadley and Washington guard Koren Johnson are also joining the fold. BYU center Aly Khalifa and Charleston guard Kobe Rodgers also committed, but both will redshirt the 2024-25 season.

(Photo of Josh Heird, Pat Kelsey: Jeff Faughender - Courier Journal / USA)

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