Pat Kelsey on Kasean Pryor's Diminished Role: 'You Just Got to Be Ready'

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Over the last several weeks, the Louisville men's basketball has certainly been impacted by not having their full rolodex of players available. Star point guard Mikel Brown Jr. had to miss eight games due to a lower back injury, while reserve forward Khani Rooths missed four due to an unspecified illness.

Another player who has missed some games this season is Kasean Pryor. The stretch forward missed the season-opener as he recovered from a torn ACL, and had to sit a couple games in December and January as he dealt with some issues in his aforementioned knee.

But recently, his role on the team has taken a significant downturn.

Pryor was last listed on the ACC's set of injury reports for Louisville's Jan. 2 tilt at Stanford. He played in the four games afterwards - vs. Duke, Boston College, Virginia and at Pitt - but averaged just 6.0 minutes per game. The 6-foot-10, 230-pound forward has not played at all in the Cardinals' last three games: vs. Virginia, at Duke and vs. SMU this past Saturday.

On Monday's weekly ACC Coaches Call, UofL head coach Pat Kelsey was asked why Pryor's playing time has seemingly evaporated. While he didn't explicitly say a reason why and even mentioned that he liked Pryor's process, Kelsey also mentioned that players have to be and stay ready, and that "we all have jobs to do."

"I like Kasean's process.," he said. "Recently- you just got to be ready. You have to be ready, and you have to stay ready. That goes for every single player on our roster. We all have jobs to do. Everybody in our organization, every player, every manager, every GA. It's all of our jobs to do what we do with everything we got every day and be ready.

"That's my expectation for not only Kasean, but for every single person on our roster. People say it's up to the coach who plays, I think it's up to the players who plays. (With) playing time, your role is developed over time, and it's earned, and it's up to everybody. Like I said, you're naming one person. I'm saying everybody needs to be ready when their name's called."

A transfer from South Florida who joined the program prior to Kelsey's first season at Louisville, Pryor was expected to be one of the top contributors on the team. However, he wound up missing most of the 2024-25 season, suffering a season-ending ACL tear in his left knee on Nov. 29 in the Battle 4 Atlantis title game vs. Oklahoma.

While Pryor had a bit of trouble finding his shooting stroke last season, he still averaged 12.0 points and 6.1 rebounds in his seven games and three starts last year. He had the opportunity to return due to the Diego Pavia ruling, and he announced that he would indeed be running it back with the Cardinals.

Pryor has played in 13 of Louisville's 21 games so far this season, but his role and overall impact has seen a dramatic downturn. Afetr averaging 23.3 minutes in his seven games last season, he is averaging just 7.4 this year. As a result, he's only putting up 2.5 points and 2.2 rebounds per game.

After missing the season-opener, Pryor had played in nine of Louisville's next 11 games, before missing both legs of their West Coast trip against Cal and Stanford. Following the latter, Kelsey revealed that, while he had made his return to the floor, Pryor was still dealing with some issues in his knee.

"He just hasn't practiced much at all," Kelsey said at the time. "He wasn't even full contact yesterday at practice. Since we left, for Christmas break, he hasn't practiced one time. Just having some issues with his injury, coming off the surgery with his knee that we're that he's working through. He wants to be out there.

"He wants to be out there, just with depth and stuff like that. He was cleared to play, so he could have played tonight, but literally he hasn't practiced one time. (It was) non-contact yesterday, he was able to get up and down a little bit full speed today at the shootaround him. So just, he wasn't ready."

At this point, it's clear that the reason as to why Pryor's role on the team has almost completely disappeared is because of his knee. What isn't clear, based on Kelsey's verbiage to the question asked about him, is if it is because it is due to something that is in Pryor's control or not. Regardless, with the season heading into the home stretch, it can be safe to assume that Pryor's role on the team is likely not going to be a major one moving forward.

Louisville (15-6, 5-4 ACC) will be back in action this Wednesday night when they host Notre Dame at the KFC Yum! Center. Tip-off is scheduled for Feb. 4 at 7:00 p.m. EST.

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