His grade tied John Calipari to Arkansas, Chris Holtmann to DePaul and Danny Sprinkle to Washington for the fifth-best grade in the cycle. Josh Schertz to St. Louis and Chris Mack to Charleston got A+ grades, while Eric Musselman to USC and Kyle Smith to Stanford both got A- grades. For what it’s worth, Kentucky’s hiring of Mark Pope received a B- grade.
Because of his first few weeks on the job, as well as his prior resume as a head coach, Kelsey’s hiring at Louisville recently received a favorable grade from a well-known college basketball outlet.
The folks over at The Field of 68 recently handed out initial grades for some of the more notable of the new head coaching hires in this cycle. Averaged out between six voters, Kelsey’s hiring at Louisville was given a B+ grade.
While Pat Kelsey might not have been the University of Louisville’s first pick to be the next head coach of their men’s basketball program, it’s hard to ignore how well things have gone over his first month-plus on the job.
Between making inroads with the fanbase and local media after both were largely ignored during the Kenny Payne era, the early recruiting efforts in the transfer portal, and an open mindset to the modern landscape, Kelsey seems to have things heading squarely in the right direction. While he’s yet to coach a game and the current roster is not complete yet, buzz around the program is the highest it has been in years.
