Sources: Louisville targets Charleston’s Kelsey

Pete Thamel Jeff

Borzello

Close Jeff Borzello ESPN Staff Writer

• Basketball recruiting expert.
• Signed up with ESPN in 2014.
• Graduate of University of Delaware.Mar 27, 2024, 12:23 PM ET Louisville is targeting Charleston’s Pat Kelsey as its next head coach, sources told ESPN on Wednesday.Kelsey is coming off his second consecutive NCAA competition appearance, leading Charleston to back-to-back CAA regular-season and competition champions. He brings a profession 261-122 record over 12 seasons as a head coach at Charleston and Winthrop.The Cougars went 31-4 during the 2022-23 season, winning 21 of their first 22 games.

  They took ultimate national runner-up San Diego State to the wire in the preliminary of the NCAA tournament before falling.Editor’s Picks 2 Related Kelsey’s hire gives an end a whirlwind search for athletic director Josh Heird, who fired Kenny Payne just over two

  weeks back.

  Heird initially pursued Baylor coach Scott Drew, who chose to go back to Waco, and after that targeted Florida Atlantic’s Dusty May, who eventually picked Michigan.This all played out in the middle of a background of unpredictability in the ACC, as last week Clemson became the 2nd school in current months to submit suit versus the conference in an effort to leave.In Kelsey, Louisville is getting a coach who will bring a high-energy design that ought to reenergize Louisville’s faithful fan base, which has endured back-to-back last-place ACC finishes.This season, Charleston won

  its final 9 games of the routine season and after that won the conference tournament to make the CAA’s automatic bid. The Cougars lost to Alabama 109-96 in the preliminary of the NCAA tournament.Over Kelsey’s past 2 seasons, Charleston is 58-12 overall and 31-5 in the CAA.Before taking over at Charleston in 2021, Kelsey was the coach at Winthrop for nine seasons, leading the Eagles to four Big South Conference regular-season titles and 2 NCAA competition looks. Winthrop likewise won the 2020 conference tournament, but the NCAA competition was canceled

  since of the coronavirus pandemic.He went 185-95 throughout his time with the Eagles.Kelsey was formerly an assistant coach at Wake Forest under Skip Prosser and Dino Gaudio and at Xavier under Chris Mack– who spent 3 and a half seasons as the head coach of Louisville from 2018-22. This provides him both experience in the ACC and in the basic geographic footprint.Payne was fired after two seasons with the Cardinals. He went 12-52 in his Louisville period, winning just one game far from home.Eight players from this season’s group have already entered the transfer website, consisting of leading scorer Skyy Clark (13.2 PPG) and fellow essential factors Mike James(12.6 PPG ), JJ Traynor( 10.1 PPG in eight games), Curtis Williams (5.3 PPG) and Kaleb Glenn (3.9 PPG ). The Cardinals’lone hire in the 2024 class, T.J. Robinson, decommitted earlier this month.