Date 1/6 || Time 7:00 || Venue KFC Yum! Center || Video ESPN
Next up for Duke is a date with Louisville in the Yum! Center, and that’s not as easy as it used to be.
After Rick Pitino was forced out in 2017
following one too many scandals, David Padgett had a year as interim coach, then Chris Mack took over in 2018. He had some success before he, too, was basically pushed out. Mike Pegues was a decent interim coach after Mack left. In 2022, there was immense pressure to hire one of their own, so Louisville zoned in on Kenny Payne. We thought he’d do okay, given what a solid job he did as an assistant at Kentucky, but Payne was an abject failure. His first year was a disastrous 4-28; his second and final season was 8-24. So much for the homegrown hero.
Lesson learned, Louisville then tried to get the best possible coach they could find and brought in Pat Kelsey from the University of Charleston, a job now held by Mack.
Both Mack and Kelsey were assistants to late Wake Forest coach Skip Prosser and both played for him at Xavier.
Kelsey inherited a dispirited program and fan base and even from a distance that was tough to watch because Louisville is one of the most passionate basketball towns in America. It’s in the Kentucky-Indiana area obviously and competes assiduously with the Wildcats. It also is within driving distance of both the University of Cincinnati and Xavier, and not far at all from IU, Purdue and Notre Dame. Evansville also has a glorious basketball history, mostly in D-II.
Louisville should have a great program. It fell apart under Payne, but Kelsey restored it with astonishing speed. Even George S. Patton would have admired how fast he restored discipline and passion to his program.
He doesn’t exactly coach like Patton – he’s not as merciless as Patton was as a general – but like Patton, Kelsey’s team move very fast.
When you consider the mess he inherited, Kelsey did perhaps the most amazing job of any coach in the country.
With the credibility he earned last year, everyone knew Kelsey’s Cards would be highly regarded this season, and Louisville has not disappointed.
The Cardinals are 11-3 to date, including a sensation win over Kentucky, 96-88, but the game was only marginally close at the end.
The losses were to Arkansas, 89-80, Tennessee 83-62 and Stanford this past Friday, 80-76.
In those last two games though, Louisville had some serious injury issues which we’ll get back to.
Louisville’s rotation consists of Virginia transfer Isaac McKneely, a 6-4 senior, Ryan Conwell, a 6-4 transfer from Xavier, Mikel Brown, a 6-5 freshman, J’Vonne Hadley, a 6-7 senior, Sananda Fru, a 6-11/250 lb. junior from Germany, Adrian Wooley, a 6-4 sophomore transfer from Kennesaw State, Khani Rooths, a 6-10/215 lb. sophomore from D.C., Kobe Rogers, a 6-3 senior transfer from Charleston, Aly Khalifa, a 7-0/250 lb. senior from Egypt, Vangelis Zougris, a 6-8/240 lb. junior from Greece, and Kasean Pryor, a 6-10/230 lb. senior.
Injuries have been a problem. Point guard Brown is out with a back injury. His backup, Rogers, is playing again but had a concussion that saw him miss some time.
Pryor has been up and down and his trying to come back from an ACL injury last season.
So that means Louisville is set up for Duke, right?
Wrong.
Brown is a big hit but this is a deep team. Against Stanford, Kelsey started McKneely and Hadley, along with Fru, Wooley and Conwell.
That means the Cards were 6-11, 6-7, 6-4, 6-4 and 6-4, with plenty of size off the bench.
More to the point, basketball is an emotional game and it feeds on itself. When the NCAA introduced the three point shot, it was like a seasoning. No more.
The three point shot has long since become an integral part of the game and teams that can hit it can jack the emotions of their teams and fans way, way up.
Kelsey loves the three and he’s got guys who can hit it. Fru, Hadley and Rogers are all over 40%. McKneely, Conwell and Wooley are all over 30%. Pryor had a three point outburst against Memphis too.
So that makes guarding this team tough.
Louisville is going to move fast and defend aggressively. They’ll fire up threes without hesitation. Conwell is explosive and has had multiple 25+ point games. ACC fans know McKneely is dangerous and Hadley and Wooley can heat up too.
In its last couple of games, Duke has allowed Georgia Tech and Florida State to light it up from outside. They can’t afford that against this team.
It’s a bit facile to say everything relies on Duke shutting down Louisville’s three point attack, but it is the tip of the spear. If they get hot from outside, the inside will open up.
Duke will need real defensive intensity in this one. If they don’t have that, they’ll have to be hot themselves to win.
We’d keep an eye on the perimeter guys – Isaiah Evans, Caleb Foster, Cayden Boozer and Dame Sarr. If they can suppress outside shooting, Duke should be in a good position, particularly with the troika of Cameron Boozer, Pat Ngongba and Maliq Brown.
This might also be a game where Nik Khamnenia might heat up. He got banged up a few games ago just as he was surging. He’s a tough guy and it won’t surprise us if he steps up here.
Nor would it surprise us to see Darren Harris have a big game. His calling card is his offense, but Harris has really improved as a defender and that’s going to be Duke’s biggest need in this one.
It won’t be easy, but this game is certainly winnable for the Blue Devils. They’ll have to show more intensity and better defense than they have in the games over the holidays.
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- ACC Releases Preliminary Injury Report for Louisville at Duke
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- Watch: Pat Kelsey, Louisville Players Preview Ranked Matchup vs. Duke
