Louisville’s Turnaround In Perspective

Barry looks at major ACC one-year improvements

This has been a predictable yet unforeseeable season for Louisville. Predictable because it‘s traditionally the best basketball program of the 10 the ACC picked up over the last two decades, and unforeseeable because the consequences of employing a purged roster and new coach were at best unclear.

Louisville, a competitive national presence, joined what it believed was a more powerful and prestigious league in 2015, filling a hole left by Maryland’s departure. Its fortunes promptly fizzled. Some of the worst fizzling in ACC history, as a matter of fact.

Over the last three years the Cardinals were 11-49 in conference play, twice finishing at the bottom of the ACC’s 15-team heap. Now they’re abruptly prospering under the spirited guidance of Pat Kelsey, once a Skip Prosser assistant at Wake Forest. Kelsey is the Cards’ fourth head coach in four years, and appears to be rekindling the UL spirit that produced three NCAA titles (one of which the NCAA revoked for rules violations).

Not coincidentally, even as Louisville ascends despite losing two starters for the season due to injury, the ACC as a whole has slumped, making advancement easier for a strong club.

The ’25 Louisville team already had more wins in the ACC (7) and overall (14) by mid-January than it enjoyed in the two previous seasons combined (4-28 in 2023 and 8-24 in 2024). Not that the Cards are outstanding statistically within the league, other than as inaccurate but persistent 3-point shooters (first in attempts, second in conversions behind Duke on .309 accuracy) and as rebounders, especially on offense (all those missed threes!).

Now there’s talk of Kelsey’s club earning an NCAA tournament invitation come March, a prospect unimaginable just a few months ago. In other words, the KFC Yum! Center is the site of a delicious turnaround, one of the greatest in ACC history. That’s with a dozen ACC regular season games still to go.

Duke fans will be excused for regarding the Blue Devils’ turnaround from 1977 to 1978 as the enduring ACC standard. That squad not only went from tied for sixth in a seven-team league with a 2-10 ACC record to 8-4 and tied for second, to an ACC title and an advance to the NCAA championship contest.

But, striking as was their jump in fortune, the ’78 Devils only improved by six wins over their previous season’s mark. A striking improvement that led to a singular postseason result, but not equal to 11 ACC teams that came later, with a rejuvenated Louisville squad threatening to join their ranks.