The “it’s going to take some time” days are over.
Sam Upshaw Jr./Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK
New Louisville men’s basketball coach Pat Kelsey has not shied away from the notion that he believes he can win at U of L and win quickly.
For Cardinal fans who had been beaten over the head for the last two years by “it’s going to take some time” as their team set records for futility, Kelsey’s words have been music to their ears.
Kelsey reiterated his stance Monday afternoon during an appearance on The Jim Rome Show.
“I really believe in today’s game that you can get good quick,” Kelsey said. “You look at what we did two years ago at Charleston. Had a magical season. Top 25, won 31 games, won 22 in a row. Season ends and a bunch of grad transfers graduated, a couple other guys went Power Five. We had four guys on our roster in the middle of April, and we rebuilt it and we did it again.”
At Louisville, Kelsey finds himself in a situation where every scholarship player from the previous team has entered the transfer portal. He’s already brought over two of his players from Charleston and landed Sun Belt Player of the Year Terrence Edwards Jr., but he still has 10 scholarship roster spots to fill.
While the situation at U of L is an extreme example, roster turnover is all part of the gig these days.
“The transfer portal is giveth and taketh away,” Kelsey said. “And the transient nature of the business now with guys coming and going, it’s a constant approach where you have to think roster management, you have to think talent acquisition, you have to put the pieces together. And then once your team gets there together in June for summer school, I think part of the secret sauce and the teams that are the most successful are able to put the pieces together very, very quickly, create a winning culture, get everyone moving in the same direction and go attack for a championship.”
The fact that Kelsey has a solid pool of NIL money to work with is well known at this point, but the new Cardinal front man says his philosophy on building a roster isn’t as straightforward as a simple pay-for-play transaction.
“We’re an ‘earn it’ program,” Kelsey said. “We’re not gonna make promises. What we’re going to promise you is that we’re gonna win, and we’re going to help develop you into the best basketball player that you could possibly be. We’re going to compete for championships. But we’re not a ‘give you’ program, we’re an ‘earn it’ program.”
You can hear Kelsey’s full interview with Rome here.
