What Pat Kelsey, Louisville Players Said After 77-62 Win vs. Syracuse

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Louisville men's basketball program was able to break out of their recent lull, taking down Syracuse 77-62 in their final home game of the 2025-25 season.

Here's what head coach Pat Kelsey, guard/forward J’Vonne Hadley and shooting guard Isaac McKneely had to say following the win:

Head Coach Pat Kelsey

(Opening Statement)

It was good to get the win tonight, especially after two tough games on the road. I thought our guys responded well. They had a great approach in the last two days of practice. It was very much player-led. All the way down the roster, those guys just took it amongst themselves. We really, really focused on us for the last two days. We knew we had a very talented team that we had to defend with a lot of weapons/ the focus was on us. It was great to see the way the guys prepared, practiced and the way they fought tonight. I thought on the defensive end, they just played nasty. They played gritty. They played tough. Their No. 11 (Naithan George) is one of the best pick-and-roll players in the league. I thought our fight and our coverage of the pick-and-roll was really good. Credit our kids. In fact, after practice, we usually go in after the last practice before a game and go in and show actions. We work on stuff and then go show them actions, like 50-60 clips. I just felt in my gut, that the hay was in the barn. I said, ’you guys practiced like champions and deserve victory. Get the crap out of here. We will send you the actions. You can watch it on your own.’ It wasn’t about that today, it was about our guys playing as a collective unit on both ends of the floor. I was proud of them.

(About the focus on defense and spacing in practice)

“Those were two things we focused on. Defense was a big point of emphasis. The grit, the fight, the nastiness -- as I mentioned -- that you have to have on every single action and every single possession. I think our guys played with that sense of desperation tonight and the offensive end. The great Don Meyer, one of the great coaching circles. A beloved figure who passed away several years ago used to say ‘offense is spacing and spacing is offense.’ I felt like we didn't have good enough spacing the last couple games. We were playing two really good defensive teams, two desperate teams. They muddied us up, you give them credit but that was one of the areas we focused on. Our guys on both ends of the floor played very connected tonight.”

(On putting Vangelis Zougris in the starting lineup)

“You come off two games where you lose on the road. We always have team 1-5 in practice, team one is the starting lineup and then two, three, four, and five doesn’t mean anything, it’s just everybody getting reps at the different positions they might play. We just left team one empty, and said, ‘I don’t know who’s going to start.’ I’m not saying the five guys that start were better in practice than the other guys, but I just feel like Zou [Vangelis Zougris], as we all know, he’s such a passionate player. We talk so much about playing with that sense of desperation, and that nastiness and toughness that I keep talking about. Nobody exemplifies that in our program more than Zou . I thought he’s been giving us a good boost off the bench. He’s practiced really well, and he won the gold jersey last week. I just thought he deserved it. It was nothing that Sonny [Sananda Fru] did wrong, and Fru is such a team player. When I pulled him aside yesterday, I said, ‘Look, I’m starting Zou,’ and he said, ‘I get it coach, you be ready and I’ll be ready.’ That’s the power of the unit.”

Guard/Forward J’Vonne Hadley and Shooting Guard Isaac McKneely

J’Vonne Hadley, 6th Year, Guard

(On the mentality of the team coming into the game today)

“First of all, I would like to thank God putting us into this position, nothing would be possible without Him. To answer your question, I would just say the last couple of days all we’ve done is spacing and defense, that’s about it. Shoutout to the coaching staff for obviously the right schemes every single time and we took this one a little bit personal, just because it’s our last home game. We wanted to do this for the fan base that continues to come out. Obviously, it was a great showing tonight. We do it for the name across our chest, all our seniors, all our guys leaving, we just need to be able to continue to do that when it’s not a last home game type of thing. So, that’s on us as our leadership to continue to have that defensive mindset, because it definitely disrupted Syracuse tonight for sure.”

(On Vangelis Zougris getting his first career start)

“I’m super proud of [Vangelis Zougris], continually every single day he brings energy. Even if he plays two minutes, 20 minutes, no matter what he plays, he’s still going to come into practice with a smile on his face. That’s not easy to do, especially in a different country. Coming over where you don’t know too many people. Everything is new, it’s a new style of basketball. I’m really proud of Zou, he’s one of my best friends on the team. So, I definitely have that extra smile for him just because I’m proud to see him doing good.”

Isaac McKneely, Senior, Guard

(On getting their frustration out tonight)

“I don’t know if I’d call it frustration, but we knew we needed a bounce back win. In our last game at the Yum!, we knew we wanted to give the fans a win, we needed a win to get back on track. I wouldn’t say frustration is the right word, but we definitely knew we needed a win. We prepared the right way the past couple of days. We knew Syracuse has got a really good team. They’re really talented, so we knew they provided us with a big challenge tonight and I thought we met the challenge and answered it early, came out hot and never got off the gas pedal, so I’m happy with the win.”

(On the ball movement – 17 assists on the night)

“Like J’Vonne (Hadley) said, we spent a lot of time on spacing the past couple of days in practice. Against UNC and against Clemson, two physical defenses, they kind of got us out of our normal spacing. So we worked on that a lot the past couple of days. And Syracuse was also in zone, so it’s easy to get a lot of assists in a zone. But, I thought we really pinged the ball tonight, we were sharing it. A lot of the guys made some buckets tonight. We were sharing it all across the lineup and I’m super happy with that, because we’re a super unselfish team when we’re pinging it around like that. When we’re shooting like that we’re hard to beat.”

Head Coach Pat Kelsey

Guard/Forward J’Vonne Hadley and Shooting Guard Isaac McKneely

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