Pat Kelsey Excited for First Louisville-Kentucky Rivalry Experience

The first-year head coach of the Cardinals is also hopeful to reverse their recent fortunes in the Battle of the Bluegrass vs. the Wildcats.

Dec 11, 2024; Louisville, Kentucky, USA; Louisville Cardinals head coach Pat Kelsey gives instruction before the start of the second half against the UTEP Miners at KFC Yum! Center. Louisville defeated Texas-El Paso 77-74. Mandatory Credit: Jamie Rhodes-Imagn Images / Jamie Rhodes-Imagn Images

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - If you're a Louisville fan, the biggest day of the year is finally here. The latest chapter of the Louisville-Kentucky men's basketball rivalry is about to be written, and an entire year of bragging rights will soon be put on the line.

The latest iteration of the rivalry is not only a new chapter, it has the potential to be the start of a brand new era. For the first time in the series' history, both teams are heading into the matchup with first-year head coaches.

Louisville brought in College of Charleston head coach Pat Kelsey, who took over after Kenny Payne was fired after two seasons. Meanwhile, Kentucky hired BYU head man Mark Pope following John Calipari's departure for Arkansas. Additionally, both coaching are bringing in completely new rosters from top to bottom.

On the Louisville side of things, Kelsey, a Cincinnati native and Xavier alum, doesn't have as much prior experience with the rivalry as Pope does, who played for Kentucky during the mid-1990's and helped them win the 1996 national championship. But even from afar, Kelsey knew how big the rivalry was before taking the job - and if he didn't, fans certainly made sure to remind him once he got here.

"When you talk about some of the great rivalries in American sports, really not just college basketball, Louisville-Kentucky is one of them," Kelsey said. "Obviously being in this town, and in your boots being planted here, they made it very, very clear early on how big this rivalry was. ... It was solidified in my mind very clearly by everybody, but I was well aware before coming here."

Fans were quick to ingratiate their new players into the rivalry as well. Before the players had the chance to even suit up and play in their first scrimmage, they were bombarded with one simple message from the fanbase: you could lose every other game on the schedule, but it wouldn't matter so long as you beat that team down I-64.

"As soon as I committed, it was all about 'beat Kentucky'," guard Reyne Smith said. "You see on social media the two fan bases kind of going back and forth with each other, so i kind of knew straight away what it actually meant."

Despite Louisville-Kentucky being one of the most vitriolic rivalries in collegiate athletics (look no further than the legendary dialysis clinic story), it's also been very one-sided as of late. The Wildcats have won 13 of the last 16 matchup, and head into Saturday's showdown having won the last two by an average of 21 points.

While Kelsey has yet to experience the Battle for the Bluegrass firsthand, he has plenty of rivalry experience during his time with Xavier. The Musketeers' annual Crosstown Shootout with Cincinnati is among one of the most underrated rivalries in college basketball, and even resulted in one of the sport's most memorable bench-clearing brawls.

So if there's anyone who knows just how important it is to get a rivalry trending back in your direction, it's Kelsey.

"Coach (Skip) Prosser used to say this all the time when he was at Xavier. There was a bunch of years in a row where Cincinnati won a bunch of the Crosstown Shootouts. His quote, and I really believe in this: 'Unless you start winning one every once in a while, it kind of stops being a big rivalry."' And I'm well, well, well aware of that.

"I know how much it means to our fan base in this city to win this game. You know I put everything I got, and our players do, into our next opponent, and we're doing the same stinking thing for this game."

Even the players know that this upcoming game against the 'Cats means a whole lot more than any other game they have, or will have, played. And this is coming from a program that likes to preach that "the most important game in the history of the program is the next one."

"It definitely feels different," freshman forward Khani Rooths said. "With preparation, it always stays the same. We treat everybody like the biggest game in the world, but this definitely feels different. It's nothing like this."

Of course, wanting to beat Kentucky is one thing. Going out and doing is another, and knocking off this Wildcats team won't come easy. UK already has a pair of wins over top-10 AP Poll ranked teams in Duke and Gonzaga, and has just one loss in ten games agains a good Clemson team on the road.

If you ask Pat Kelsey, if the season ended today, Mark Pope would be the National Coach of the Year given what he's been able to accomplish from a fresh start, and that this UK team is their "best in the last 10 years." He also admires hire for his faith and who he is as a person based off his prior interactions with Pope.

But don't get it twisted. Once tip-off arrives, Kelsey will be ready for a war.

"I tried not to like him, because I don't think I's supposed to like the Kentucky coach, but he's a man of faith and a really good coach," he said. "When 5:15 happens, I mean, we'll shake hands and we'll exchange pleasantries, and we see each other on the road, we'll talk, because I think we have some commonalities. But at 5:15 we're trying to rip each other's face off. I'm sure he's trying to do it to me, and I'm trying to do it to him."

Louisville will certainly have the deck stacked against them in this matchup against Kentucky, and that's withstanding the actual opponent. For starters, the Cardinals have already been dealt a pair of season-ending injuries to Kasean Pryor and Koren Johnson, with Aboubacar Traore also going to miss it as well. Throw in a head-scratching shooting issue, and the Cardinals will be putting a 6-4 record on the line this Saturday.

There's also the fact that Louisville will have to make the trek behind enemy lines and try and knock off the 'Cats in Rupp Arena, which is one of the toughest home-court advantages in college basketball.

Kelsey knows that the home crowd is going to be extra juiced in hopes that their most hated rival gets sent home with a loss. He's believes that his guys will be able to handle the raucous environment, but also tells them that he wants them to embrace the moment.

"When you were on the floor, on the bench in the arena at the Crosstown Shootout between Xavier and Cincinnati, it felt different," he said. "There's an electricity in the air. There's a buzz. It's special. I can only imagine (what it will be like) with the venue that they already have. With the rivalry, it's even gonna be more electric.

"Listen, you gotta tell your guys, because I think this is so darn important, is to embrace it. Embrace the moment. It's a special opportunity to play in a game like this, a rivalry game like this, in an atmosphere like this."

Tip-off between Louisville and Kentucky is set for Saturday, Dec. 14 at 5:15 p.m. EST.

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