Happy Sunday

I give Kelsey - A- on his first roster. Well done. Getting Pryor, Hepburn, Edwards and Hadley is a great sign for what he'll be able to do moving forward. 2 of the most coveted transfers in the portal and 2 players from very successful P5 programs is great first impression.

At this point, there’s no way of knowing how much Kelsey’s game plan will change from Winthrop/Charleston to Louisville. But based on the roster he’s assembled, we can make some assumptions.

Since his meeting with Nick Nurse, he’s coached 9 seasons. 6 of those 9 have seen his teams take 43% or more of their shots from behind the 3-point line, 7/9 take 40% or more, and 8/9 take 39% or more. His first season at Charleston was his fewest 3-point attempts in 8 years: 37.6%. His last two teams took 46.9 and 47.3% of their shots from deep. For comparison, Pitino’s last 6 teams at Louisville averaged around 33%. Mack’s around 40%, Payne’s 33%. All of Nate Oats' Alabama teams are 46%+.

Based on this roster, I think it’s safe to say we’re probably going to see 45%+

This is a “whoever gets the rebound, push the ball” roster in my opinion. Fans will have to embrace a new era of Louisville basketball. Pat Kelsey’s word of the year is VERSATILITY.

Forget positions. This roster is too talented and too versatile to worry about positions.

Louisville’s current 9-man active roster combined for 751 assists last year.
There isn’t a single player with a negative assist/turnover ratio.
All but 1 player (Traore) have great turnover % numbers.
Only 3 players (Hadley, Traore, Scott) averaged less than 1 made 3 per game. Hadley has a great shooting %, he just didn’t take many.
This roster made 352 3s last year.
This roster has 7 players that you can not leave open.
Those 7 players combined to shoot 38% from deep.

Free Throw %
Pryor – 82%
Hadley – 84%
Edwards – 80%
Waterman – 81%
Reyne Smith – 86%
Hepburn – 74%
Johnson – 72%
Traore – 68%

Previous O Ratings and D Ratings aren't much help when you have players switching to new teams, with new players, in new schemes. But what we do know if that UofL will have length and versatility to annoy opponents and clog up passing lanes.

Chucky Hepburn - 6'2
Koren Johnson - 6'2
Reyne Smith - 6'2
J'Vonn Hadley - 6'6
Terrence Edwards - 6'6
Ab. Traore - 6'5
Noah Waterman - 6'11
Kasean Pryor - 6'10
James Scott - 6'11
Franky Anselm - 6'10

You have multiple players - with length and athleticism who can initiate an offense, make a play, make the right pass and hit a 3.

You also have Hepburn, Hadley, Pryor and Traore who can be elite defenders.

I've spoke on James Scott all Summer. I'm not saying he's going to be an All ACC player from the jump. But buy stock now. He doesn't have the well rounded offense game of a Pryor. But what he does have is great athleticism, good feet to defend out onto the perimeter, aggressive demeanor in the paint, good hands and a wide wingspan. (can't find what it is exactly but it seems much longer than his height) He's going to take time to acclimate to the increase in the level of competition and a new system - it may take him until mid-February, it may not be this year. But James Scott is going to be a VERY good player.

In conclusion.

I see no glaring weaknesses in this roster. Chucky is probably one of the 20 best PGs in the country. You've got guys like Edwards, Hadley, and Johnson that can get you a bucket. You've got someone like Reyne who can park on the perimeter and destroy teams. You've got guys like Pryor and Waterman that can pull bigs out of the paint and cause mismatch issues. You've got guys like Franky and Scott to be menaces to anyone who comes near the rim. You've got multiple ball handlers, you've got multiple playmakers, shooters, defenders, size..etc. etc.

Everything is new. There will be growing pains. There's absolutely no reason this team can't be REALLY, REALLY good by the end of the year. We get Duke and UNC at home. Pitt, FSU and UVA home and away and our ACC away schedule is VERY manageable. This is a roster that could end the season with 7 or 8 losses, get in as a 6 seed and do damage.

I like my team. I like my coach. I like where my program is headed. I like that I can say all of that for the first time in 3 years.

10.8 speed is always welcome.

@Ty Spalding Are you hearing anything on Hawkins? Rutherford said today we’re still making a push for him. I think ends up at Arkansas but still very interesting.

Well now that baseball is done, it's officially 10 athletic years in the ACC. So how have things been going? What are your favorite 10 games and moments from this era?

1. FSU 2016. It pretty much encapsulates that moment in the Lamar era. Everything was great. We were the talk of the sport with the Heisman winner. It put us on a path with Clemson for a game that would determine a playoff and ACC title game spot. The ultimate moment for our fans. College Gameday was here. It had it all.

2. Notre Dame 2023. Brohm was home. Brohm delivered a win that we needed on ABC Primetime. Sometimes big years get lost if there is not a big moment. But we got it and our field storm. Everything that started to fall apart in Fall 2015 felt like it went away that night.

3. Miami 2014. We arrived. We conquered. We did to Miami what they used to do to others. We were the upstart underdog program that was taking college football over in a new league. Bobby was back. ESPN primetime. ACC Takeover Begins NOW!

4. Notre Dame 2014. This might be the best team overall in UofL history and they never get their respect. Playing in a division with FSU and Clemson that year plus Devante's injury early killed the hype, but this team got their moment. NBC game at Notre Dame with Reggie Bonnafon at QB. Are you kidding me!? This game gets lost because it happened in between the Teddy and Lamar years, but it was huge nonetheless. This was our best team we ever had other than the QB spot, but we were so complete.

5. 2015 Music City Bowl. Now to be fair to A&M and that game, Kyler Murray and Kyle Allen both transferred, and we missed out on a more epic matchup. But Lamar's legend was national that night and we put the world on notice. A big win over a SEC school that recruits top 10 and NFL talent constantly and on national TV. So big in that moment.

6. UCF 2021. For all the crap we gave Satt, he inherited a mess and stabilized our program. HE wasn't the guy we wanted, and it worked out well, but he had some moments. That Friday Night last minute comeback win was special. We needed some good news and good vibes. One of those games that didn't mean much in the grand scheme, but it was special if you were there.

7. Miami 2023. We clinched a berth in the ACC Title game. It's a game we did not deserve to win and we played bad, but we overcame and won a big game on ABC. Top 10. Fringe playoff hopes alive. Had Kentucky the next week and FSU after. IT was a fun time.

8. Kentucky 2014. Now we're 3-6 against them since joining the ACC, so I'm going to appreciate this one. Rivalry games need fun and close matchups to really mean more. We had the pregame fight. We had a back-and-forth battle. We had Devante Parker cementing his legend with one final game where he took over. And we shut their mouths. They even had a bye week the week before and couldn't close the deal when we played like crap. Kyle Bolin legend game!

9. Wake 2019. That was a wild ride of a game. Coming off the 2018 2-10 disaster, we needed some hope. We were all just hoping to be competitive again, let alone a bowl game? We beat BC the week before and it felt great, but it was BC. But this Wake game showed would Tutu, Hawkins, and Malik could do when it got rolling. We beat a ranked team in a shootout. We started moving our expectations up. Our 2-10 rebuild got sped up. Granted, the 2019 season kind of hurt Satt long term because it raised expectations for his rebuild when we truly just overachieved that year.

10. Wake 2022. After the BC loss, we were dead. Everyone wrote the team off. But something happened, we won 5 of our last 6 games. We were on of the best pass rushing teams in the nation. We were doing it with a backup QB. Wake cheated us the year before. And we just exposed them and our defense took over that day. Considering all that happened, we were ranked #25 going into the last week of the season. That team kept fighting. Satt wasn't the guy and we needed Jeff, but he left the roster in good shape and way better than the place he found it.

Happy Saturday !

College Football Bowl and Playoff Schedule 2024 Season

It’s Friday

Love to see CPK having the confidence to add the Vols to our schedule.

https://www.wdrb.com/louisvilles-pa...deo_c77b99cb-9a43-56f1-8d62-7cd02bc98600.html

Login to view embedded media

According to Mike Rutherford, on his radio show, UofL basketball still has what might be a considerable amount of leftover NIL money due to a few of our players being international (and therefore not eligible for regular NIL).

CPK will kick the tires on Coleman Hawkins or maybe someone else. The roster appears done, but may not be quite yet as Kobe Rodgers might give up his scholly since he is for sure redshirting due to injury.

Login to view embedded media

Interesting Comparison on ESPN.COM

One would think that saying they had some similar numbers would be an insult and we'd be angry at ESPN, but here they do it and are speaking positively about our team. I think we were a little too harsh on Jack at times last year. He was limited, but also sometimes we do not realize that having QBs like Jeff Brohm, Chris Redman, Dave Ragone, Stefan LeFors, Brian Brohm, Teddy Bridgewater, & Lamar Jackson in a 25 period is not normal for a program that isn't a powerhouse like Ohio State and others.

Heck even at times we were harsh on Malik when in reality Malik would've carved up the CUSA, Big East, and AAC schedules we used to play.

I think Shough is going to have a big season and it seems like the national media thinks so too. Establishing the run will be key in replacing maybe our best performing RB duo ever in a season, but Shough and the new wideouts will make it work.

But I'm thinking Shough might set records.

Comparing to some other Louisville QBs and Brohm guys.

1998 Redman was 4000+ yards on 473 attempts. 29-15 TD-INT
2007 Brohm was 4000 yards on 473 attempts. 30-12 TD-INT
2013 Teddy was 4000 yards on 427 attempts. 31-4 TD INT
2021 Aidan OConnell had 3700 yards on 439 attempts. 28-11 TD-INT
2023 Plummer had 3200 yards on 395 attempts. 21-12 TD-INT

I could see Shough having closer to 450 attempts. 4000 yards. 32-15 TD-INT. I'd also point on that list that the last 2 were really the only ones playing a power conference schedule. We're going to pass more this year and have better options at wideout, much deeper. We won't be running as much either. And we won't want to keep the ball out of our QBs hands like last year either.

What you need to know:

• A comparison:
  QB A: 62.0 Total QBR, 64.3% completions, 7.93 yards-per-pass, 21 total TD, 14 turnovers
  QB B: 68.4 Total QBR, 63.8% completions, 7.97 yards-per-pass, 26 total TD, 12 turnovers
  QB A is Jack Plummer's 13 starts vs. FBS competition last season at Louisville. QB B is Shough in his 13 career starts, which span four previous seasons.
• Louisville went 3-1 vs. top-40 defenses last season despite Plummer posting a woeful 39.6 Total QBR with just 2 TDs, 3 picks and averaging 5.9 yards per attempt in those games. If Shough can improve on those numbers in 2024, the Cardinals could be awfully dangerous.

Click to expand...

Former U of L assistant Luke Murray may be getting a promotion soon.

Dan Hurley is apparently at the top of the list for the LA Lakers.

Wowza.


.

That being said, Bart Torvik is not high on the Cardinals heading into year one of the Kelsey era, ranking Louisville as the No. 89 team in college basketball. They are the fourth-lowest ranked team in the now 18-member ACC, ahead of only Virginia Tech at 96th, Stanford at 98th, Florida State at 121st and Boston College at 147th.

Louisville sports an adjusted offensive efficiency of 109.1, which comes in as the 92nd-best mark in Division I, whereas their adjusted defensive efficiency of 98.8 sits at 88th. Despite bringing in a highly-ranked transfer class, Torvik tabs UofL as the 131st-most talented team in D1 with projected effective talent rating of 21.7.

Put it all together, and Torvik projects Louisville to go 16-15 over the course of the regular season, and 8-12 in conference play.

Login to view embedded media

Excellent article breaking down potential issues.

Login to view embedded media

Right here:

Folks around the program know just how vital this MBB season is to the success of the overall athletic department.

One source told me this season is the most important of any in recent memory. The mentality is invest and win big in 2024-2025 and use it as a spring board for fans to be back in the YUM, and in turn get the revenue back to where it should be.

There is no holding back on improving the roster for year one. Up until the ball is tipped, Louisville is going to be aggressive.

Login to view embedded media