LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — There was a time not so long ago when driving into the lane against Louisville basketball was a little like driving through rural Kentucky.
No toll booths. No traffic. Just keep the pedal down and enjoy the scenery.
If an opposing guard reached the rim, somebody might eventually meet him there. Usually after he'd already scored.
Pat Kelsey inherited that defense two years ago.
Among the Power Four and Big East, Louisville ranked dead last in defensive efficiency the year before Kelsey arrived. The year before that, the Cardinals finished ahead of exactly one team: DePaul.
That's not a defense. That's an invitation.
Two years later?
Louisville has finished among the nation's top 30 in defensive efficiency in each of Kelsey's first two seasons.
In that time, Louisville has proven it can score, run, compete for an ACC championship and recruit at an elite level. Kelsey has rebuilt the foundation beneath one of college basketball's proudest brands.Â
Most coaches would look at that climb and congratulate themselves.
Kelsey looked at it and started recruiting in the Big and Tall section of the transfer portal.
There's a reason. Of the past 15 NCAA champions, only two finished outside the nation's top 15 in defensive efficiency. Only three finished outside the top 11. Kelsey doesn't need those numbers to know the trend.
He didn't so much spend the offseason trying to fix a problem as trying to close the last gap between pretty good and the last team standing.
Look at the recruiting class. Look at the coaching hires. Look at the size and makeup of Kelsey's third Louisville roster and the pattern isn't hard to spot. Kelsey said it out loud.
"There was an intentional approach to increase our length, our athleticism and, in particular, our rim protection," he said.
Intentional. This isn't a growth spurt. This was a blueprint.
Everybody knows Kelsey wants to run.
"The older I get," he quipped, "the faster I want to play."
Which is why Louisville's first player interviews of the summer were so revealing.
Ask them about playing in Kelsey's offense, and they started talking about defense. Ask them about tempo, and they talked about rim protection. Ask them about chemistry, and before long they were talking about length, pressure and taking chances.
The NCAA Tournament has a habit of reducing basketball to its simplest truth. Sooner or later, somebody has to get a stop.
That's where Flory Bidunga, in particular, enters the picture. He's the Kansas transfer who was the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year and is the top returning shot-blocker in Power 5 this season.
But to describe him as just a shot-blocker is selling him short. Shot blockers erase mistakes. Great shot blockers erase decisions.
Before Bidunga ever blocks a shot, guards start seeing him. Layups become floaters. Floaters become pull-ups. Passes become second thoughts.
Listen to Adrian Wooley: "We'll be able to pressure the ball ... send people to him."
Listen to Jackson Shelstad: "I think we are going to be a little more up on ball screens, stuff like that, just because we have the best rim protector in the country. We can take some chances."
Neither one was talking about blocked shots.
They were talking about freedom. That's what elite rim protection buys. Permission.
Permission for guards to crowd passing lanes. Permission to gamble. Permission to pressure the ball because somebody else can erase the mistake.
Louisville's defense has come a remarkable distance.
From dead last among the major conferences to one of the nation's 30 best.
For most coaches, that would be the destination. For Pat Kelsey, apparently, it's just base camp.
Last season, Louisville wanted to outrun people.
This season, it wants to erase them, too.
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