Know Your Foe: Louisville

Written By Tucker Harlin

By Tucker Harlin

#12 Tennessee (1-0) heads north to face Louisville (1-0) in its first non conference road game at the KFC Yum! Center Saturday. Tip off is at noon and the game airs on ACC Network.

The Cardinals defeated Morehead State 93-45 on Monday night.

As the score indicates, this one got out of hand quickly. The Cardinals turned the Eagles over 20 times in the game, scoring numerous points off the fast break in the opening half.

Louisville is in its first season of Pat Kelsey’s tenure.

Kelsey started his career as a head coach at Winthrop in 2012 and spent nearly a decade there before taking his most recent job at College of Charleston. Pat Kelsey is what you get when the strength and conditioning coach gets promoted to head coach, only Kelsey is probably much more qualified to be a head coach than the average strength and conditioning coach.

Strength and conditioning coaches are known for their energy and motivation, two things the Louisville basketball program needs after a painful era (pun absolutely intended). Kenny Payne finished his two years 12-52, absolute rock bottom for the Cardinals basketball program.

As you can imagine, every player that contributed heavily for the Cardinals on Monday was a transfer. Kelsey brought two with him from Charleston in forward James Scott and guard Reyne Smith.

Scott got the start for the Cardinals, scoring 12 points and corralling five rebounds. Smith came off the bench and is a potent three-point shooter, averaging a percentage in the upper 30s from distance over his three seasons in Charleston.

The Vols played against two of the Cardinals’ starting guards in the last two seasons in J’Vonne Hadley and Chucky Hepburn.

Hadley beat Tennessee with Tad Boyle and Colorado 78-66 in Bridgestone Arena two seasons ago. He went 3/5 from distance and scored 15 points for the Cardinals against Morehead State.

Hepburn was Wisconsin’s point guard in its 80-70 home loss to Tennessee about this time last season. He still does most of his offensive work as a distributor and fit right into Greg Gard’s defensive scheme with the Badgers.

Rounding out the starters are Terrence Edwards Jr. and Aboubacar Traore.

Edwards was a part of an incredible James Madison team but did not follow Mark Byington to Vanderbilt. He scored 12 points in a 5/7 effort from the field Monday.

Traore played for the Long Beach State team that fired its coach and proceeded to make the NCAA tournament for the first time in 12 years. He established a reputation as a strong rebounder at Long Beach State, but Traore only goes about 6’5.

Outside of the aforementioned Reyne Smith, there are three more bench players that received extended minutes on Monday.

The most productive piece is Kasean Pryor, a transfer who started his career at Boise State and transferred out of USF this offseason. Pryor put together a double-double of 18 and 12 while leading the team with four assists.

Noah Waterman and Koren Johnson are the other two important bench pieces.

Waterman is on his fourth school, spending time with Niagara, Detroit Mercy, and BYU. Waterman didn’t show out in his debut as a Cardinal, but he’s shown an ability to threaten from the three-point line in the past.

Johnson spent his previous two seasons at Washington and left when it fired Mike Hopkins. He scored four points in 18 minutes off the bench Morehead State.

Tucker Harlin
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