Louisville arrived this week at the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament in Charlotte, N.C., as the hottest team in the league, having won nine straight games and 19 of its past 20.
It’s a remarkable turnaround from last season, when the Cardinals entered the event on a seven-game losing streak and were one-and-done, falling to North Carolina State to close a dreadful 8-24 season.
Thursday night, the orchestrator of the Cardinals’ astonishing transformation, Pat Kelsey, will lead 13th-ranked and second-seeded Louisville (25-6) against seventh-seeded Stanford (20-12) in the ACC quarterfinals.
Less than a year ago, Kelsey took over a program that had gone 12-52 in two seasons under Kenny Payne and had no returning scholarship players.
Mining the transfer portal, Kelsey found gold in a foursome of guards who have grown more cohesive as the season has progressed.
Chucky Hepburn (Wisconsin), Terrence Edwards Jr. (James Madison), Reyne Smith (Charleston) and J’Vonne Hadley (Colorado) all average at least 12.4 points per game.
“A bunch of guys are from parts all over, all over the world and didn’t know each other from anything. I asked them to love each other on day one,” said Kelsey, who was named ACC Coach of the Year earlier this week.
Also collecting honors was Hepburn, who made the ACC first team. He leads the Cardinals in scoring (16.3 ppg), assists (5.9 per game) and steals (2.4).
“They’ve got (maybe) the best point guard in the country,” Stanford’s first-year coach, Kyle Smith, said of Hepburn. “He’s been phenomenal.”
Entering the tournament, the status of Reyne Smith, who set a school record with 10 3-pointers in a win over SMU on Jan. 21, is uncertain because he has an ankle injury.
Smith, who has made 106 3-pointers this season, played the past three seasons for Kelsey at Charleston, reaching the NCAA Tournament the past two years.
“I didn’t think we’d be in this position right now. I was just kinda Joe-bag-of-doughnuts, a mid-major guy, and Josh Heird took a chance on me,” Kelsey said, referring to Louisville’s athletic director.
Stanford advanced Wednesday night with a 78-73 win over Cal behind Maxime Raynaud (23 points, eight rebounds) and Jaylen Blakes (21 points, six assists).
The Cardinal survived a 37-point assault from Andrej Stojakovic, getting 3-pointers in the final 2:05 from Oziyah Sellers and Benny Gealer, along with five points in the final 27 seconds from Chisom Okpara.
Thursday’s quarterfinal will be a rematch of Saturday’s regular-season finale, which Louisville won at home 68-48 behind Hepburn and Edwards, who scored 16 points each.
Louisville won the battle of the boards 40-33 and outshot Stanford 44.3 percent to 30.4 percent.
“They were really good defensively that night,” Smith said Wednesday. “I’d like to say we had open shots we missed, but there just wasn’t much breathing room.”
The 7-foot-1 Raynaud delivered 17 points and 11 rebounds and drew raves from Kelsey.
“He’s a problem,” Kelsey said. “He’s a major threat, going gravity toward the rim, gravity away from the rim, because he can shoot it so well.”
Stanford has had a surprising inaugural season in the conference after being picked by media members to finish 17th in the 18-team league.
Since joining the ACC in the 2014-15 season, Louisville has a 3-8 record in the conference tournament, including an 0-4 mark in the quarterfinals.
–Field Level Media
