Good evening, Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) sports fans.
There should not even be a question about this… University of Louisville (Louisville) head men’s basketball coach, Pat Kelsey, should be the NCAA men’s basketball coach of the year. This should not be a close race at all.
Rick Pitino, also in consideration for the national coach of the year (and he’s gone a good job there as the Red Storm won their first outright Big East title since Chris Mullin was a player there), was the beginning of the a downward spiral for Louisville men’s basketball. If you recall, the Pitino led team found new ways to provide a failing response to a sex-for-play scandal. Yes, you read that correctly:
For hiring strippers and prostitutes to attend more than a dozen sex parties with recruits and players at an on-campus dormitory over a five-year period, Louisville was placed on four years’ probation by the NCAA, and Pitino was suspended from coaching in the first five ACC games this coming season.
This action was only part of a downward spiral for Louisville men’s basketball. You see Louisville hired someone who – on paper looked good in Chris Mack – and there were lots of highs – and lots of lows. Many of the Louisville fans I’ve talked to always said that Mack never really embraced the University of Louisville men’s basketball culture. In the end, Louisville suspended Mack for failure to follow University guidelines, policies, and procedures in handling the matter – and then reached a separation agreement.
Louisville then hired its own alumnus, Kenny Payne, as head men’s basketball coach. Payne did not have any head coaching experience at the collegiate level – but did have prior assistant coaching experience at Kentucky under John Calipari. He was also on staff with the NBA’s New York Knicks and the University of Oregon Ducks. He is currently on Calipari’s staff at the University of Arkansas. You see more about Payne’s bio here. Payne was a complete dumpster fire as a head coach – someone who Jeff and I both called to fire in this 2nd year. This was a guy who was completely lost as a head coach – he probably needed a GPS to the bathroom. I remember talking about Pheldarius Payne on Twitter once – I was saying, #BringthePayne – and Louisville fans thought I was talking about Kenny and got sad lol – that was the nail in the coffin, as they say, for “it is time for you to leave, Kenny.”
Sure, we can talk about the job that Pitino has done at St. John’s – but the Red Storm were not in as deep of a hole (and Pitino was the first one with a shovel digging that hole). We can talk about Bruce Pearl, too – to frank, I’d have him at the #2 spot for national coach of the year – but he has access to all the resources – Auburn has a ton of money and should be good – there’s not excuse for Auburn not to be good.
Fast forward to Pat Kelsey. On January 15, 2025, Kelsey won more games than Payne did in two years (Kelsey had to completely turn over that roster). This is a ridiculous statistic – but it also shows you how big the Grand Canyon was that he did Louisville out of – and you also know Kelsey’s teams are going to play hard every single night. Louisville has a double bye in the ACC tournament. Louisville as of this writing is ranked 19 in the country – and will probably be in the ACC tournament final in Kelsey’s first year. And we know that Louisville will be in the NCAA tournament.
Pat Kelsey for national men’s college basketball coach of the year.
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