What HC Pat Kelsey, Louisville Players Said After 76-65 Win vs. Notre Dame

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Make that back-to-back wins for the Louisville men's basketball program, who had to overcome yet another slow start against Notre Dame, but made winning plays down the stretch to earn a 76-65 victory.

Here's what head coach Pat Kelsey, plus forward/center Sananda Fru and shooting guard Isaac McKneely had to say following the win:

Head Coach Pat Kelsey

(Opening statement about the ND vs UofL game):

“I am proud of our guys tonight. It wasn’t the prettiest game in the world. In the game, we shot 7 of 31 from three for 22%. They shot 11 of 27 for 41%. You have to overcome that by winning in the margins. I think we did that on the backboards first and foremost. That was a huge difference in the game. Adrian Wooley had four offensive rebounds and was fighting his butt off. Khani Rooths continues to do what he does, which is fighting his butt off. I thought Zou (Vangelis Zougris) gave us big rebounding minutes off the bench. Kasean Pryor played with that reckless abandon that I love to see out of him. He has had a tough run of it coming off a tough injury. The way the chips have fallen this season, the type of season J’Vonne Hadley is having, who as you know is such a glue piece and the backbone and Khani Rooths is blossoming before our eyes, it made it tough for Kasean to crack the lineup. He has always had a great attitude. Always. He is just a joy to be around. He always has a smile on his face and hugs me when he sees me. He has never pouted. But there has been a change in him the last couple weeks – like his process is different, he is practicing angry and desperate. He stacked some days together but didn’t get to play. But he didn’t pout or sulk but just continued to do it. Sure enough, the way a season goes -- which is why we call it ‘25 Strong’ -- J’vonne goes down in practice and has a really tough fall and tried to get ready to play today. He warmed up and started the game but just couldn’t play. We called Kasean’s number and he went in and plays a phenomenal game for us despite giving up two wide-open threes to a green, green guy late in the game. But he played his butt off and was really good tonight.”

About the women’s basketball game:

“There is a big game here tomorrow night with two undefeated teams in the ACC. Coach Walz is doing what he always does, wins. They are having a phenomenal season, as No. 6 in the country. I think tickets are only seven dollars. We need a big time atmosphere here tomorrow. I have all these cameras here looking at me and they have reach. I want everybody to hear how important it is and what a big challenge it is for the city to make this a big-time environment tomorrow night. I am really excited and it is awesome to see the season they are having. It doesn’t surprise me because Coach Walz is a sure-fire hall of famer. He is a good friend of mine and been a mentor to me.”

(About what UofL could change to get a better start)

“I’m going have the guys put their left shoe on first before their right shoe. The guys that wear undershirts don’t wear undershirts, the guys that part their hair on that side, let’s try the other way. You know, I don’t know, we haven’t changed anything we do, our warmups have been phenomenal. Brian Kloman has been with me a long time, and he is the barometer for warmups. I always ask him first how we were and he said ‘locked, lathered’. I felt it was like déjà vu. I really felt it was like deja vu from the other day. They were throwing it in, and we were getting good shots again, and they weren’t going in. I mean, literally, it felt like a carbon copy of the other day. We had a chip in around the rim we missed, had a couple wide open threes, and they were like bang, bang, bang same thing. I looked around, and I’m like, you remember that show Punked, I felt like I was being punked. That’s the way it goes. We’ll look at it, see if we need to change something up. It’s been tough, we haven’t gotten off to good starts lately.”

(On surviving poor shooting and maintaining the lead)

“Sometimes that’s hard, human nature, sometimes when shots not falling just felt a little weird. I just thought the effort, the grit, the tenacity, the energy went like that [up]. Usually when you’re rolling on offense that’s when it goes up. And they really upped the rebounding. We missed so many 3s, but gosh darn there were some scrums for balls, I’m not even going to name all the names. We played really, really hard, like I said we won the margins, 68% assist rate, 19 of our 28 field goals were assisted on. We shared the ball. Ryan (Conwell) and Mikel (Brown Jr) are two premier scorers and they had a tough night and other guys really, really stepped up. So that’s very, very encouraging when you look at the offensive contributions, we got so many guys especially on a night when those two elite scorers didn’t score at their normal level”.

Forward/Center Sananda Fru and Shooting Guard Isaac McKneel

Sananda Fru, Jr., C

(On the complete team performance)

"It’s a next-man-up mentality. We had guys like Kasean (Pryor), who didn't play that much, and they just came out to give us a great boost. And, just in general, offensively, the team did a great job just sharing the ball, involving everybody and looking for the right shots."

(On Khani Rooths impact on the game down low)

"I feel like it makes the game way easier, just because of, on the one side, his ability just to grab rebounds, it's amazing. He just gets in there and just grabs some boards defensively as offensively; it just really helps. And then on the offense, he just really pushes the pace, brings the ball down quick, being aggressive, and just really helps the team and just does whatever the team needs. On the other hand, he's an amazing defender, getting deflections, being in gaps and just making his presence be felt."

Isaac McKneely, Sr., G

(On the complete team performance)

“Obviously J’Vonne (Hadley), one of our leaders, one of our captains got hurt in practice the other day and wasn’t able to go, our team always has a next-man-up mentality. Khani (Rooths) played amazing. Kasean (Pryor) played amazing off the bench, (Adrian) Wooley – everybody off the bench was amazing tonight. I think that just shows how much depth we have. The starting five can get it done, but then we’ve got people who could be in the starting five coming off the bench as well, so there’s no drop off whenever we go to our bench and I think that’s what makes it so good. From top to bottom everybody contributed tonight.”

(On Kasean Pryor bringing energy)

“He always makes plays that are super loud, whether it’s a dunk or a big steal, whatever it is he’s willing to do whatever it takes to win. That’s what I love about him, he’s just going to come in and bring tons of energy, tons of energy on the defensive end, he does a great job connecting us on offense. He just brings so much when he’s out there and he’s been working his butt off in practice, out of practice, in film and everything. He’s been working his tail off so I’m super happy to see that pay off for him tonight.”

Head Coach Pat Kelsey

Forward/Center Sananda Fru and Shooting Guard Isaac McKneel

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