Pat Kelsey ahead of NCAA Tournament 2025 game

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LEXINGTON — Pat Kelsey did not clap.

All those hours poured into leading Louisville basketball back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019 — just to feel slighted on Selection Sunday.

Kelsey tilted his head back in surprise, then tapped J’Vonne Hadley on the leg. They locked eyes with perplexed expressions, then Kelsey looked around a room full of mixed emotions and held up eight fingers.

A No. 8 seed? Really.

“Right after that,” Hadley said, “we got right to work.”

The revival is over; welcome to the revenge tour. Next stop: Rupp Arena; where, after a loss to archrival Kentucky three months ago, fifth-year guard/forward Terrence Edwards Jr. declared, “We know this thing’s going to click. It’s going to click real soon.”

For as impressive as the Cardinals (27-7) have been while pulling off one of the largest turnarounds in Division I history and reaching the ACC Tournament championship game for the first time since joining the conference in 2014, they must fire on all cylinders if they want to reach the second weekend of March Madness.

U of L tips off two days of nonstop hoops at 12:15 p.m. Thursday (CBS) against No. 9 Creighton (24-10), the Big East’s regular-season and postseason runner-up, with, in all likelihood, No. 1 overall seed Auburn waiting for it in the second round.

Step 1: Forget about the seeding. Revenge, of course, is a dish best served cold.

“It doesn’t matter,” Chucky Hepburn said.

“It’s kind of irrelevant,” Edwards added.

“Whether the committee decided to make us a No. 16 seed, a No. 8 seed, a No. 4 seed, a No. 5 seed; we’re here,” Kelsey said. “All of our attention is on trying to beat a world-class coach and a world-class team.”

Creighton, as Kelsey alluded to, is one doozy of a first-round opponent. The Bluejays boast top-45 offensive and defensive efficiencies on KenPom.com with one of the country’s best big men, Ryan Kalkbrenner, and sharpshooters, Steven Ashworth, to boot. Not to mention: Longtime coach Greg McDermott has guided them to the…

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Publish date : 2025-03-19 16:41:00

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