Mark Pope keeps telling the Big Blue Nation that he and his program “understand the assignment” that comes with Kentucky basketball. The Wildcats want to win championships and hang banners. On the way to that postseason success, winning the in-state rivalry matters a ton. New Louisville head coach Pat Kelsey also seems to understand that.
In an interview with Kent Spencer of WHAS11 in Louisville, the new Louisville coach sat down for 14-plus minute interview to discuss all things NIL, transfer portal, managing expectations, and Skyline orders. But the 49-year-old was also asked about the big rivalry with Kentucky. Kelsey is embracing how much that rivalry matters to the Louisville fan base.
“Rivalries are what makes college sports great. It’s one of the things that’s great about collegiate sports,” Kelsey told WHAS11. “I grew up in Cincinnati and Xavier and Cincinnati were huge, huge rivals and obviously, Louisville-Kentucky is like that on steroids.”
“Its been mentioned to me a couple times that it’s a pretty big rivalry. They say that kind of matters around here a little bit.”
Those are some strong words from Pat Kelsey. Similar to Kentucky, the Cardinals had to build a roster from scratch and Kelsey’s staff has added 12 transfers. Kelsey not only inherited an unfortunate roster situations, but there are also some bad head-to-head rivalry results. Kentucky owns a 39-17 series lead in the rivalry. The Wildcats are 13-3 against the Cardinals since 2009-10. Louisville has not won in Rupp Arena since the 2007-08 season. The former Winthrop and Charleston head coach will look to flip the rivalry early in his tenure. Kelsey even dropped the “unless you win over every once in awhile it stops being a rivalry” line that he borrowed from Skip Prosser.
The next meeting between Kentucky and Louisville on the hardwood will take place on Saturday, Dec. 14 at Rupp Arena. That will be the first matchup between Pat Kelsey and Mark Pope. In the Bluegrass, we are used to the opposing head coaches having some type of rivalry. That is not there yet, but maybe just give it a little time.
“I just know he’s a phenomenal coach,” Kelsey said about Pope. “He’s had a ton of success at BYU and I have the utmost respect for him.”
Kentucky will look to continue its men’s basketball dominance over Louisville in six short months. Odds are high that non-conference matchup will get pretty emotional as both programs are looking to begin a new era with a strong first season. Nothing helps a new coach more than a year one win over a rival.
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