CRAWFORD | Pat Kelsey owns 'butt kicking' at Duke. But is there a fix for Louisville? | U of L Sports

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Pat Kelsey used some version of the phrase “got our butt kicked” a dozen times Monday night.

Twelve.

That Louisville was embarrassed by No. 4 Duke is not up for debate. The scoreboard, 83-52, settled that. The stat sheet underlined it. The tape will circle it in red.

So the press conference wasn’t about truth-telling. It was about triage.

There was nowhere else for Kelsey to go. When you lose by 31, you don’t deflect. You don’t contextualize. You don’t mention travel or tip times or vibes. You take the hit, because the hit already landed.

What matters now — the only thing that matters — is why this keeps happening, and what, exactly, Louisville plans to do about it.

Louisville | Kentucky | Indiana | Eric Crawford

Kelsey was clear on the symptoms. Duke was tougher. More physical. More aggressive. Better on the glass. Better in the paint. Better everywhere. Louisville shot panic jumpers when its first action failed. Duke imposed its will.

All of that is accurate.

But none of it is particularly new, where ranked opponents on the road are concerned.

This was not Louisville’s first road blowout against a ranked team. Not its second. Down 20 at Arkansas. Down 25 at Tennessee. Now Duke. Different gyms, same script. Competitive for a time, maybe. Then overwhelmed. Then erased.

At some point, repetition stops being coincidence and starts being diagnosis.

Kelsey took responsibility, and he had to. “I’m the coach. I’m in charge of all that,” he said. That’s not candor; that’s the job description. Accountability isn’t optional when your team is down 25 before the under-12 timeout.

What Louisville hasn’t shown — not consistently, not against the best teams — is the toughness it keeps talking about.

“We got our freaking butts whooped,” Kelsey said. “And when you get your butt whooped and you're on the ground, you got to freaking get up and fight.”

This team shrinks inside against strength. It loses the paint. It loses the glass. On Monday, it lost composure when the game turned physical. And when the margin stretched, its body language followed.

Those aren’t effort problems. They’re identity problems. Some would argue that the problem is in roster construction, in a system that doesn't provide enough in the way of interior size and strength. That's an argument Kelsey and the Cardinals will have to counter. If they can.

Kelsey referenced Duke as a “measuring stick.” That’s fair. But a measuring stick only helps if you’re willing to accept the measurement. Right now, Louisville’s measurement has been, frankly, pretty consistent.

The coach talked about needing to generate a second advantage when the first breaks down. He talked about panic shots. He talked about watching the tape.

That’s the right vocabulary. But the calendar matters, too.

This isn’t November. This isn’t discovery season. This is January, almost February. Generally, who you are by now is who you are likely to be. But not always.

Kelsey said they can’t get those 40 minutes back. True. But they don’t need them back. They need the next 40 to look different.

Not cleaner. Not prettier. Different.

More resistance. More edge. More response. They need Khani Rooths back. They need Kasean Pryor to do what he can (which he has been doing, but his recovery from knee surgery is what it is.) And Louisville needs those things against the best teams they have left on the schedule.

Because press conferences don’t change seasons. Games do.

Louisville got its butt kicked. That part’s settled.

Now comes the harder work. Acknowledging why it keeps happening and proving that the answer is more than just saying it out loud.

Louisville has games left. They’ll win some. They might even start to look like the team we thought they could be. But if they’re still getting muscled off the floor come March, Monday’s honesty session won’t mean much.

You don’t, after all, hang banners for self-awareness.