Pat Kelsey has Louisville basketball recruiting at all-time high

Yahoo

23-07-2025

NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. — Pat Kelsey is the right coach at Louisville, at exactly the right time in college basketball history, to maximize the Cardinals' recruiting in a way that has never been done before.
Kelsey doesn't have any more or less charisma or recruiting acumen than the coaches who came before him. But he arrived precisely when the program can wield its vast financial resources and its position among the traditionally great programs to win any recruiting battle.
The Cardinals have never signed a player ranked in the top 10 in back-to-back classes this century. Kelsey has them positioned to make history.
Freshman guard Mikel Brown Jr., the highest ranked recruit at Louisville since Samardo Samuels was No. 2 in 2008, was eighth in the 247Sports composite rankings for the Class of 2025.
Kelsey is currently pursuing — and getting serious consideration from — several top-10 players in the Class of 2026, including Louisville native Tyran Stokes, a small forward who is No. 1 overall in the composite; Jordan Smith Jr., a guard who is third overall; and guard Dylan Mingo, who is eighth overall.
Ikenna Alozie is a native of Nigeria who's been in the United States close to four years. He was a fan of Russell Westbrook and said the only college basketball program he originally knew was UCLA, because Westbrook played there.
Alozie, who is also being recruited by Kentucky, knows all about Louisville now. He said Kelsey and his staff have had a consistent presence at his games.
'It's just eye-opening to me,' said Alozie, who is a 6-foot-2 guard ranked No. 10 in the 247Sports composite.
If Kelsey is able to put it all together, he'll raise more than a few eyebrows nationally. Since 2000, the Cards haven't had a class with multiple top-10 players.
The last time the Cards signed two players in the top 25 of a class was 2011 when Chane Behanan and Wayne Blackshear helped give them the nation's No. 3-ranked class.
How much it will matter in producing a Final Four or national title run remains to be seen.
There's something to be said about the shift in college basketball that began when transfers gained immediate eligibility. Coaches started to prefer putting together their rosters through the portal with experienced players instead of building through high school recruits.
Elite freshmen are still highly coveted but national championships nowadays are won by veteran players, not an all-star roster of top-20 freshmen recruits.
Duke made it to the 2025 Final Four with a freshman-heavy rotation led by Cooper Flagg and two other NBA lottery picks, but the Blue Devils' 2015 title team remains the last freshman-heavy team to win it all.
Also keep in mind when Rick Pitino signed Russ Smith and Gorgui Dieng in 2010, neither were viewed as program-changing talents. Dieng was much more of a project than a player who would play in the NBA for a decade. Smith was a complete wildcard and certainly was not projected as someone who would have his jersey retired to the rafters of the KFC Yum! Center.
Samuell Williamson, signed by Chris Mack in the Class of 2019, never developed into a star, despite being ranked 16th in the Class of 2019. His five-star rating by 247Sports remains U of L's fourth highest all-time since 2000.
Higher rankings don't guarantee success just like lower rankings don't mean a program is doomed to fail.
But all things being equal, coaches are going to take the best talent and take their chances.
U of L is about to find out how that feels.
Reach sports columnist C.L. Brown at [e-mail], follow him on X at @CLBrownHoops and subscribe to his newsletter at profile.courier-journal.com/newsletters/cl-browns-latest to make sure you never miss one of his columns.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville basketball recruiting thriving under Pat Kelsey in NIL era