Coach Pat Kelsey has revived the Louisville image by adding key players, including Mikiel Brown and Ryan Conwell, along with Isaac McKneely and Adrian Wooley. The Cardinals were impressive defensively in their 96-88 win over Kentucky. Photo by Louisville Athletics.
Birds Fly: Freshman Mikel Brown, Jr., scored 29 points while Xavier senior transfer Ryan Conwell netted 24, and the Louisville Cardinals defeated rival Kentucky, 96-88, in the Bluegrass Showdown at KFC Yum! Center on Tuesday evening. Brown scored 20 of his 29 in the first half, but Conwell struck after Wildcats guard Jaland Lowe scored on a four-point play, giving Kentucky a 22-19 lead with 11:35 remaining in the first half.
Conwell sparked the decisive 14-2 Louisville run as he scored seven points in the run, which was highlighted by his third triple of the evening.
The Cardinals’ defense shut Kentucky as the ‘Cats were 0-0f-8 with two turnovers in that stretch. The Wildcats’ Croatian freshman Andrija Jelavic scored in the lane to cut Louisville’s lead to 34-26 with 6:27 remaining before halftime.
“It started with the defensive end, getting stops early, holding them to one shot, boxing them, out and getting into transition and getting easy buckets,” explained Brown. “I think that’s where we’re at our best when we play in the open court.”
Brown had five points in a 10-0 Louisville sprint that gave them a 46-28 advantage with 4:38 remaining before halftime.
Kentucky guard Denzel Aberdeen scored eight points as Louisville’s lead was cut to 53-46 at the break.
“It was a big-time college atmosphere, two really good teams competing at a very high level; it was just genuine competition. There wasn’t any extracurricular stuff; it was just good old-fashioned loose balls, hard screens, and dudes playing their butts off. It’s a great rivalry, it’s one of the greatest rivalries in all of collegiate sports, and this was another edition of that.” — Louisville coach Pat Kelsey
Biggest Lead Plus Late Comeback: The Cardinals took command immediately in the second half as they hit five triples, two by Isaac McKneely, which gave Louisville a 78-58 lead with 12:24 remaining.
Kentucky rose to the occasion with Collin Chandler’s back-to-back threes, and then his three cut the Kentucky deficit to 88-84 with 4:02 to play.
Aberdeen was strong down the stretch as he added eight points while Brown and Conwell combined for Louisville’s last ten points to solidify the win.
“I want to credit Coach Pope and his team and the program they are building there,” Kelsey commented. “I firmly believe that his team is a national title contender, and I believe that to be the case for our team as well.”
Return of the ‘Ville: Coach Pat Kelsey flipped the Cardinals’ fortunes in year one as he led Louisville to a 27-8 record, which encompassed more wins than the Cardinals had achieved in the three previous seasons combined. Their 18-2 ACC ledger was one game back of 19-1 Duke. Kelsey added some talented scorers as Ryan Conwell (Xavier) and Isaac McKneely (Virginia) were two of the 14 players who made 175 triples while shooting 38 percent from the three-point line.
“Hey, It’s Me!”: J’Vonne Hadley is the lone returnee who was in Coach Kelsey’s rotation last season. He started all 35 games and averaged 33 minutes per game. Hadley shot 51.8 percent from the field, where he scored 12.2 ppg. with 7.8 rpg.
Counting Conwell: Kelsey does an excellent job of recruiting through the transfer portal and keeping his team older and more experienced. Ryan Conwell is another 33-plus-minutes player who also averaged 16.5 and 16.6 ppg. in the last two years, while shooting around 40 percent from three. Louisville is his fourth stop as he was at South Florida, Indiana State, and last season with the Musketeers.
“What drew me here was that … that culture that we have here and just the love and just the respect for everyone,” said Conwell.
Another 30-Plus: Adrian Wooley is a scorer from Kennesaw State who also averaged 33 minutes last season. While Kelsey has put together an excellent roster, it seems that no one will see 30-plus minutes too often because of this deep rotation. Wooley averaged 33.8 mpg with the Owls while scoring 18.8 points, grabbing 5.2 boards, and dishing 3.6 assists per game.
Doing the Derby City – The immediate remake of Louisville Basketball once again proved that the “Derby City” houses one of the Top 10 programs in the history of college basketball. A revival is a finding and awakening of a guiding spirit. Kelsey locked up the Louisville community with his style and ability for a revival of Louisville Basketball throughout the Cardinal Nation.
“To be honest with you, my 100,000% focus is getting this team on the same page, moving in the same direction, give it the best chance to be special,” he said. “My marketing acumen has gone down a little bit, but hopefully my coaching and motivation acumen have gone up.”