What Pat Kelsey, Louisville Players Said After 77-55 Loss vs. Tennessee

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Louisville men's basketball suffered their first loss of the 2024-25 season and the Pat Kelsey era, getting humbled by No. 12 Tennessee for a wire-to-wire 77-55 loss.

Here's what head coach Pat Kelsey, guards Chucky Hepburn and guard Reyne Smith had to say following the loss:

Head Coach Pat Kelsey

(Opening Statement)

“Obviously extremely disappointed, [the KFC] Yum! Center was electric, we asked people to come out, they came out big. It was as elite of a college basketball atmosphere as you’re going to find anywhere. The fact of the matter is, they were the better team tonight. [Tennessee] punched us in the mouth from the very beginning. The only way to describe it is they beat us in almost every single facet of the game. My message to the players after the game was, I told them the one thing that they don’t have to worry about is us being good. The one thing they don’t have to worry about is us being good. We're going to become a good team. I believe that, deep down in my soul, with every single fiber of my being, and we've got a long way to go. It was a heck of a test, obviously, we’ve got to credit Coach [Rick] Barnes and his staff and his players. Like I said, we take pride in rebounding, effort, deflections those type of things, and got our butt kicked on the glass. I don’t know what it was exactly, but [rebounding] was like plus fifteen, I think it was on the glass. I felt like their physicality on the defensive end really disrupted our rhythm. We’re a rhythm offensive team. I thought they took us out of what we wanted to do, and it forced us, not forced us, but it turned into too much one on one, too much dribbling, which is one hundred percent not how we play on the offensive end. It's the first time this team has gotten punched in the mouth and faced adversity since June 5th, when I stood up here at my press conference and we signed this team. They’ve had a lot of ‘atta boys’ and a lot of pats on the back and a lot of high fives. I mean what I've said over the last eight months, whatever it is, five months since this team’s been together, they’ve been phenomenal. It's a really, really good group, and I do believe, with everything I got, that this team is going to end up being really good. But, for the first time, [we] got hit in the mouth and [we’re] going to face adversity. My challenge to them in the locker room was not the X’s and O’s that we have to clean up, because there’s a lot of them, like I said, almost every facet of the game I thought they were better than us today, but that’s for tomorrow, that’s for tonight at 2AM when I’m watching tape and I’m breaking down, cleaning up the X’s and O’s, ball screen execution at both ends of the floor, our defensive ball screen, whatever it is. But that meeting in [the locker room] was about walking out and having our circle tighter than ever. Walking out of that room and having a resolve about them. As they go back to their dorms, and like all kids do, and they check their social media, and [listening] to all the people that [have] been telling them how good they are, [or] just crushing them, because that’s how it is, that’s the world. I just told them, don’t blink. Don’t blink. Look to the guy to the right of you, look to the guy next to you, love him more than ever. Don't blame anybody else. Don't complain about anything else, don’t get defensive. Just know that we’ve got to go back to work on Monday and get better, and we will.”

(On if how well players adjusted to the atmosphere)

“I think they did. [Tennessee] punched us in the mouth. We got on our heels at the beginning of the game, and obviously the crowd was revved up like crazy. They got off to a pretty significant lead at the beginning, but I thought our guys rallied. [There were] a couple of times where [the deficit] was getting close to ten [points] or single digits, and you could just feel the crowd just wanted something to get a little momentum and we just couldn’t get over the hump. [Tennessee] would make a play, they would make a big shot, they would get a big stop. Then late in the game we called that timeout with four or five minutes left, [and] there [were] two or three possessions where it looked like, the five guys that were on the floor had given up, right? No pun intended, but it looked like we waved the white flag, and we called a timeout, got after them, and [Louisville] responded, went out and played hard, and continued to compete right down to the very end. We're going to play the Tennessee’s moving forward, we’re going to play teams of that standard, and we’re going to be ready for it next time, I can promise you that.”

(On how the offense can improve)

“Yeah [the offense] stunk, it stunk. Again, you have to give credit to Tennessee, they’re a very, very sound defensive team. They're extremely physical, and [Tennessee] didn’t allow us to get into a rhythm. [Tennessee] blew up dribble handoffs, they were very aggressive on ball screens, [Tennessee] just muddied up the game, and it forced us to play without the normal flow. I thought early on we were settling for just okay instead of trying to hunt great, as we say on the offensive end. We talked about playing on the attack, getting downhill, touching the paint, putting foul pressure on them. I felt like we were playing around the perimeter a little bit too much in the first half, so I have to watch the tape. But you asked what we need to improve on the offensive end, I would answer you, ‘everything’. Our set play execution was porous, our flow, or kind of the play after the play wasn’t good enough. Our special team's execution on baseline out-of-bounds was sub-par, I mean I could go on and on. The one thing I would never, ever, ever do as a head coach, is ever blame the players, right? I start with me first and foremost; I could’ve done a better job getting our guys ready and preparing them and putting them in better positions. But, we’ve got a group of guys that are going to come back to practice on Monday, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, leaning forward. Nothing, nothing, nothing will change in terms of the energy at practice, in terms of our attention to detail and striving for excellence. But, [Tennessee] exposed some things, there’s no question about that, they exposed some things today. What’s going to allow this team to take the next step is to learn from the things, right, that [Tennessee] exposed and then make sure they don’t happen again. That's my job, and we have a veteran group, with a lot of leadership that will make sure that they have that same mentality as well.”

(On after being exposed on defense today, what stood out defensively)

“On the defensive end, Everything, Everything. Start with guarding the ball, high-end closeouts, ball screen execution, transition defense, not allowing second shots hitting, attacking the ball. I mean, again, I have to watch the tape. But the answer is everything, and it will be addressed, maybe better because of this. Look it stinks and hurts, but if you attack it the right way it becomes a positive down the road. My mentor used to say, there’s this sound ‘thump thump thump, thump, thump’, there’s a bandwagon, right? And then there’s not enough, not that we have bandwagon fans. I’m not saying that in any shape or form, but what happened today will be a positive for Louisville Basketball moving forward. I would ask our fan base, I would ask our fans, I would ask our donors, just like I told our guys in that locker room, don’t blink, don’t blink, right? This team, I believe, again, I say this with everything I got is going to be really, really good. And if our guys do that, they put the blinders on, they go back to work, they attack the next thing with excellence. The results are going to come. And then we have that same energy that we had here today. I told them, there’s a good chance that the next game won’t have that many people at the game, but they are going to come back. They are going to be there again. Again, I always praise our opponents, Tennessee was the better team”

(On how beneficial it was playing a game like this early as opposed to a cream puff kind of schedule)

“As I sit here looking at you guys and looking at a box scores where we just got our stinking butts kicked, and it hurts like crazy. No question, we needed that today. Josh, we were walking in talking about, he’s like ‘Man that’s a tough second game, I know I pushed for that.’, I said thank you. Thank you, that is exactly what this team needed, because the things that nailed is today were exposed today by Tennessee, and now we are going to get the chance to fix it. When you’re playing a game in the Bahamas, whether you're playing our two exhibition games, or you’re playing Morehead, a new team with a new coach, and all those things. We didn’t get exposed the way we did today. I will embrace this butt-kicking. I have had my butt kicked before, and I’ll probably have my butt kicked again. We’ve done a little butt-kicking as well. But you know the response, and what you learn from getting your tail kicked, is the mark of a really, really good team. I believe in those guys in that locker room. the normal feel or tendency, or the human nature in me wanted to go in and just pound my fist, throw my notebook down, and lose, that’s not it. Walking out of that room it’s about the resolve of our 25 strong. And on Monday at practice, we’re going to have a phenomenal second practice and we are going to get better because of it.

(On going through something like this with a new team and facing adversity for the first time)

“One hundred percent, that’s exactly right. Adversity is a great educator. Adversity is a great teacher. But if you don’t look at it that way, and you feel sorry for yourself, and put your tail between your legs, and you look down when you walk into the student center, you walk into the grocery store. You’re not approaching it the right way. Unbelievable adversity for our team, and it’s great. We are going to learn from it”

(On (Zakai) Zeigler’s effect on the game)

“You know, appreciate the beginning of that question, because you sounded like my mom who’s going to try to make me feel good when I walk out of this press conference. Blew some sunshine at me there at the beginning. But number 5 is a phenomenal stinking player. He was dominant today. He’s the preseason defensive player of the year in the SEC for a reason. He wreaks havoc.

“I believe in our guys. I believe in our guards. I know what they are capable of. Those guys feel terrible right now, and they’re better than how they played today. I’m better than how I coached today, but you give that kid credit. You tip your cap to big moments when we had a little bit of momentum and the YUM started rocking, he answered, even if it was a little bit of a prayer shot, at the end of the shot clock. It’s what big-time players do. They step up and make big-time plays and big-time moments, that's what that cat did. So, a lot of respect for him, and it’s probably a really good chance that well see these guys down the road and next time we’ll be better.”

Guards Chucky Hepburn and Reyne Smith

(On the fan support)

Hepburn: “It was great to have everybody in here. We weren't pleased with the outcome. That was one of our goals for this year, to go undefeated at home, and today, we just didn’t come out with the win. But I promise you that we’re going to work as hard as we can to be able to be the best team that we can be, and that we know we can be. We have a lot of potential with this team. We’re not done. This is only the second game of the year. It’s a great test for us with an all-new team. So, it’s a good test to know where we want to be at for the future, for March. We’re not going to stop. We’re going to keep going and it’s only going up from here.”

(On what you learned about the team and yourself)

Smith: “A lot of it is just handling adversity. From June to now, we haven’t really been punched in the mouth like we were tonight. I think how we handle that going forward and going into practice on Monday is the next thing we need to focus on and just get better. What happened today happened, and there’s nothing we can do but learn from it. I think this group of guys is still really positive and confident that we’re going to be really good, and we are really good. It’s just a learning curve. Just handling this adversity is going to be a true test of character.”

(On how they embrace the loss to become better)

Hepburn: “Tennessee is a very good team, and that’s what we wanted. We wanted to play a very good team to start the season off to see where we’re at and what we’ve got to get better at. I feel like the offense was very stagnant today, and that’s what we’re got to get better at. We’ve got to be able to move the ball a lot quicker and get stops when we need them. They hit a couple of big shots, and for us, that’s getting stops when we need to. At the end of the shot clock, when we’re tapping our heads, we've got to be able to come out with those types of stops to get momentum.”

(On how Tennessee’s defensive intensity and physicality affect the offense)

Smith: “They did a really good job defensively and kind of trying to blow a lot of our stuff up. It was kind of the first time we’ve really faced a team that’s that caliber of defense. So, just learning, I think a lot of it was on us, on executing better. There were times when we probably should have pushed the ball in transition better off a make and things like that, where we were just kind of hurting ourselves. It’s just learning after we’ve faced a really good defensive team.”

(On things that stood out that could be easily corrected)

Hepburn: “I know for myself, turning the ball over. Four turnovers today. That’s not me, and that’s not who I am. I have to take care of the ball and treat every possession like it’s the last possession of the game. I just felt that I failed at that today. I’m going to get better, and I’m going to get back to taking care of the ball. This is my last game turning the ball over that much.”

(On if there was a point where the team felt more comfortable)

Smith: “For sure. Coming out of the gate, Tennessee punched us in the mouth and brought the physicality to us. Over the course of the game, we made our run and tried not to panic. I think a lot of it is just learning throughout, and we lost the physicality battle today. That’s something that won’t happen again for Louisville Basketball. It’s just a learning curve for us.”

(Photo of Pat Kelsey: Jamie Rhodes - Imagn Images)

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