LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Pat Kelsey has nine healthy fingers, but for Tuesday night’s 96-88 victory over Kentucky, he’d gladly have sacrificed all ten.
They say you can't put a price on a win over your arch-rival. Turns out, you can. It's one dislocated digit, incurred in the line of jubilation, after a postgame mosh pit with your assistant coaches in the KFC Yum! Center practice gym.
The Louisville coach took off on his best coming-down-the-third-base-line-after-a-home-run trot and zigged when a curtain zagged. The finger bent sideways. Hey Siri, is it supposed to bend like that?
No, it is not. Call it the price of joy. Or the deductible on relevance.
It wasn’t the only thing that pointed a new direction on a night when Louisville basketball recharted its course.
In a reborn rivalry, in front of a packed house, a city was reminded that, yes, big-time basketball still lives here, not just in memory or sepia-tone glory, but in present tense, loud and red and jumping.
Louisville freshman Mikel Brown Jr. drives for two of his game-high 29 points in a win over Kentucky.
The Cardinals didn’t just beat the ninth-ranked team in the country. They beat the brand, the blur, the blue-blood birthright that has loomed large over this program like a banner that wasn’t vacated. For a night, they beat the eyebrows off Big Blue Nation. They beat the decimal points out of KenPom’s computer.
And they did it with the best player on the court, a freshman, Mikel Brown Jr., who was so cool he could’ve stored meat. Instead, he packed away points, 29 of them. It was the most points by a Louisville freshman since Edgar Sosa put 31 on Texas A&M in 2007. He added five assists, one turnover, drew six fouls and went 10 of 11 from the line. Louisville scored on 60 percent of possessions he played.
Just don’t call it a statement game, because he didn’t.
“I don't want to sound cocky or anything, but I trust my work,” Brown said. “I know how much work I put in to get to this point. There's been a lot of hours put into the gym. The unseen hours, they come onto the court. To me, I think it's just expected.”
Most impressive score of the game? After Collin Chandler buried a three to pull Kentucky within four with four minutes to play, Brown got the ball at the top of the key, passed it to J'Vonne Hadley on the right wing, got it back, shot faked, jab-stepped, shot faked again and then slipped by fellow freshman Malachi Moreno like bourbon through cracked ice. Layup, and one. Louisville’s flight was next for takeoff.
This was a kid who went 2-for-15 from the field in an exhibition loss to Kansas, then came back out on the court and spent a half hour shooting.
“That Kansas game, Mikel put so much pressure on himself, and I just love how he's responded since then,” Kelsey said. “Not that he didn't have a certain focus about him, because he's always focused. He always works hard. He's mature beyond his years. But he's been a monster ever since that game. And my goodness, was he special tonight.”
Donovan Mitchell speaks with Mikel Brown Jr. after Louisville's 96-88 win over Kentucky.
It has been a long time since Louisville had That Guy. In fact, the last time Louisville had anything close to the best player in this game was the last time they beat a good Kentucky team, 73-70 in this building in 2016, when Donovan Mitchell, Quentin Snider and company beat De’Aaron Fox, Malik Monk and Bam Adebayo.
Mitchell was sitting courtside Tuesday. He took a private jet in from a loss in Miami, and was taking another one back after the game.
“That’s how much he loves Louisville,” Kelsey said. “And Louisville loves him. And it meant a lot to me. I told him. I mean, that’s one of the most special things I’ve ever seen.”
Mitchell poured a steady stream of encouragement into Brown and Ryan Conwell from his courtside seat opposite Louisville’s bench. At one point, he was shouting to Conwell after Kentucky had cut a 20-point deficit to 14, and Conwell pulled up and buried a long three right in front of him. The two exchanged a look as he ran back up the court.
Conwell made four three-pointers, drove to the rim when the situation demanded it, and like Brown, drew six fouls, going 8 of 12 from the line. He finished with 24 points and in general outplayed Kentucky’s SEC preseason player of the year, Otega Oweh.
“It's a dream just to be in this position, all I can do is just thank God,” Conwell said. “… We just play hard and we play together. When adversity came, we just stuck together and didn’t fold.”
Louisville guard Ryan Conwell pulls up for a jump shot in the Cardinals 96-88 win over Kentucky.
In 74 possessions, Louisville had only six turnovers, and only two by its starting backcourt.
Meanwhile, Sananda Fru, who sounds like something you'd order at a smoothie bar, played like something you'd see in Madison Square Garden. Ten points. Seven rebounds. No fear. Aly Khalifa gave the game four of everything — points, boards, assists — and the Cardinals scored on 60 percent of the possessions he was in the game.
Isaac McKneely, Adrian Wooley, and J’Vonne Hadley all chipped in nine points, like side characters in a Coen brothers movie, delivering one-liners (or three-pointers) that feel like plot points.
And then there was the coach with the bum finger, trying to hide it under the table like everybody hadn’t already seen the tape on his hand and the locker room video on social media.
“We work really stinking hard,” Kelsey said. “… You’ve got to enjoy the wins. You just have to. You can't be relieved that you didn't lose. You have to enjoy the wins. Be honest with you -- that one was a little bit better and bigger than most of them.”
Louisville could’ve played a lot better. In the last 51 seconds, the Cards went 1-for-8 from the free-throw line. That can get you beat. The Cards went 9 of 16 on layups. Kentucky’s length inside bothered them. Louisville shot just 32.5 percent from three-point range.
It gave up an 18-point lead in the first half, and a 20-point lead in the second. During the second of those runs, Kelsey told his team it had lapsed defensively.
“I looked out there and I told them at the time out, I could squint my eyes and I could just see open gym -- open gym defense for about two or three possessions,” Kelsey said. “... We talk about SVP all the time -- stance, vision, positioning. We’ve got a veteran team, and they fix things before I get in the huddle. But I told those guys, ‘We’ve got to ramp up our defense. We're not playing with enough intensity, enough passion. … Our guys locked back in down the stretch.”
And there it was. The win. No court storm, but celebration. No confetti, but catharsis. Mitchell presented Brown with his MVP award, a metaphor right there on the court.
Some wins, you have to give an arm and a leg. This one, Kelsey just gave a finger. Still, he felt no pain. Turns out, beating Kentucky is the new novacaine. A finger is a small price to pay. You want a toe? I can get you a toe, believe me. There are ways, Dude. You don’t want to know about it.
“There’s so much adrenaline going on in my body right now, I didn't feel anything,” Kelsey said.
Nothing but joy.
Copyright 2025 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved.
