Kobe Rodgers

Kobe Rodgers during a shoot around before Louisville's 2025 NCAA Tournament first round game against Creighton.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- There's one national champion on Louisville's basketball roster.

He didn't transfer from a blueblood. He doesn't come with an NIL campaign. He's not the guy everybody's talking about.

But Kobe Rodgers has seen what it takes to win a championship, up close.

He helped lead Division II Nova Southeastern to a perfect 36-0 season and a national title. He was a starter and a steadying presence on a team that never lost.

Now, he's a senior at Louisville. Fully healthy, finally. Ready to play in a competitive game for the first time in 19 months. Ready to contribute in a new league, at a new level, under a familiar coach.

"I can't wait," Rodgers said. "It's felt like forever, even though it's only been like a year and a half. I've put in the work."

The road back has been slow. His last competitive game came in the 2024 NCAA Tournament, when he tore his ACL playing for Pat Kelsey at Charleston. It was his final act before Kelsey took the Louisville job.

And even then, even with Rodgers facing a year of rehab, Kelsey still offered him a scholarship.

Because he knew.


A coach's trust. A father's voice.

"He's one of the guys I brought with us from Charleston for a reason, because I believe in him, and he's a really good player." Kelsey said. "… And because he represents everything we want this program to be about."

They go way back. Both are Cincinnati guys. Same high school basketball conference. The first time Kelsey called, Rodgers got the scout from mutual friends.

Kobe Rodgers

Kobe Rodgers at Louisville basketball media day on Oct. 15, 2025.

"They all said the same thing," Rodgers said. "He really cares."

So when Kelsey brought him to Charleston, Rodgers believed. And when Kelsey brought him again to Louisville, even hurt, he felt something bigger.

"Him taking a chance on me to go to Charleston, and then bringing me here, even after my knee injury, I feel like it's only right to put my best foot forward and do what I can," Rodgers said.  

He saw some of that in his dad.

Darrell "Doc" Rodgers was a former Reds assistant GM, a minor-league pitcher and a radio host on 700 WLW, "The Big One," in Cincinnati. A father who beat cancer long enough to run up and down high school basketball courts with a whistle in his mouth and tumors in his lungs and brain.

He was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer when Kobe was 8 years old. He kept officiating five or six games a week anyway.

He once drove to a game in a U-Haul just to keep his officiating schedule. That's who he was.

Even his doctors were stunned.

And Kobe remembered. His mother, Dorothy, guided him through all of that, and through the years after his father died. He credits her for him getting to this point at all.


The quiet return

If you go by headlines, Rodgers might not be among Louisville's most visible players. All the talk has been about the pros, the prospect and the portal shooters. He's just fine with that.

"They get all the credit because they've put it down on paper," he said. "I want them to enjoy the limelight as much as they can – because that means we're winning."

You start to see what Kelsey sees. Freshman Mikel Brown sees it every day.

He says Rodgers is the one who makes the right play, every time. The one who flies around on defense, guarding multiple spots. The one who doesn't try to do too much, because he knows exactly what's needed.

Kobe Rodgers

Kobe Rodgers during a Louisville shoot around before its 2025 NCAA Tournament first round game against Creighton.

Brown sees it. Others see it. So does he. Rodgers sees the game more clearly now, after a year on the bench. And he sees his role just as clearly.

He's a piece. Not the whole picture. But a piece every great team needs.

"You know, a lot of people haven't seen my worth, or whatever, maybe like other pieces on the team," he said. "Whatever my role is, whatever I need to do to help the team win, that's what I'm going to do."


Back from the silence

He is shy. Says it himself. His bio says he likes to sing but most people probably don't know it. Derrick Rose was his idol growing up, another quiet winner. Another player who's known both success and suffering, and dealt with significant injuries.

Rodgers carries the long months he spent working to get back. His arm bore a University of Louisville tattoo long before his first game.

There's also one for Nova Southeastern — a reminder of both the perfect 36-0 season and the year that came close before ending in defeat. He hasn't forgotten the weight of perfection – nor the lessons of a perfect season spoiled. He remembers scoring 21 points in a national semifinal. Of cutting down nets with a team that never broke.

"That team showed me things that I never knew to even think about," he said. "Just that journey of every day knowing that it could be over, that a perfect season could be over. My freshman year we got to the Elite Eight and lost, and that was our only loss that whole year. You've got to enjoy every moment. And you can't take one moment off, because once you think you have it in the bag, you're looking back at home watching the national championship game on TV."

Kelsey preaches that the next thing is the most important thing. He gets no argument from Rodgers. He has lived that, and seen it work to perfection.

"Never take anything for granted," he said he learned. "Always be locked in, always be focused."

Now, he's back. Stronger. Smarter. Still quiet, but ready.

He didn't get here in a straight line. He got here by waiting. By healing. By singing softly in the background while the music got loud.

"My life has been a journey of a million miles, and I've got a million more to go," he said. "It's not going to be perfect like it was in the past. It's not going to be perfect in the future. So, I'm just taking it a day at a time, approaching it with the best attitude that I can, and believing that the work that I put in in the past and the work that I'm going to put in in the future is going to pay off in a big way."

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