Finally, the juice is back in the Kentucky-Louisville basketball rivalry
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Rivalry regained intensity after 2024 coaching changes and a recruiting spat.
- Kentucky and Louisville field ranked, talent-rich rosters that promise tighter games.
- Coaches keep cordial public tone but recruit and compete fiercely on the court.
The past few years of the Kentucky-Louisville basketball rivalry have been a virtual lovefest.
The last couple of seasons of the John Calipari era at UK coincided with the beginning (and end) of the Kenny Payne era at U of L.
It was a stretch that went so poorly, so quickly for the Cardinals that Calipari (and even some Kentucky fans) didn’t do much to hide their support — and, ultimately, pity — for the longtime, beloved Wildcats assistant who crashed and burned as head coach of his alma mater.
Both men were out of their jobs by the end of the 2023-24 season, and Payne promptly rejoined Calipari as the top assistant at Arkansas last year.
Enter Mark Pope and Pat Kelsey, the new faces of the Cats-Cards rivalry. Friendly faces, that is.
Before they coached a game for their respective schools, Pope and Kelsey shared a stage at the Leadership Louisville Center’s annual luncheon last summer, an hour or so of basketball stories and professional advice from two men who seemingly could not have enjoyed each other’s company more.
That talk was peppered with compliments being thrown in both directions, each coach nodding along approvingly at what the other had to say.
Even when they met on the court for the first time a few months later, a moment that could have devolved into chaos ended with a relative whimper.
Brandon Garrison’s relentless pursuit of a loose ball near the Louisville sideline resulted in the UK big man being swallowed up in a mass of red on the opposing bench. Garrison was surrounded by Cardinals — some jostling ensued — and Pope ran from the Kentucky bench to get involved in the altercation and try to pull his players out of the mix.
For a brief moment, Pope had his arm around the back of Kelsey’s neck amid the scrum. The whole thing could’ve turned ugly. Instead, both coaches played peacemaker. The situation didn’t escalate. And that was that.
Kentucky defeated Louisville 93-85 in Rupp Arena that day. Kelsey was gracious in defeat, and many in a UK fan base that had despised Denny Crum, reviled Rick Pitino and found plenty to dislike about Chris Mack couldn’t help but appreciate the new coach.
Would this Kentucky-Louisville lovefest ever end?
It might be getting to that point.
Mark Pope vs. Pat Kelsey
There’s nothing quite like recruiting to get college basketball coaches hot under the collar.
It’s still not clear what exactly happened outside of five-star recruit Tay Kinney’s home around midnight on Sept. 3, but whatever it was has certainly stoked the fire of this rivalry.
Kinney, the nation’s top point guard and a Kentucky native, had been at the top of each coaches’ wish list, basically since they arrived in their new jobs. On that night — the first of the fall in which high school prospects could host coaches in their homes — Pope was apparently scheduled to visit with Kinney and his family right at midnight.
The most common retelling of this night has been that Pope and his staff were running a tad late, Kelsey and his staff — set to meet with the Kinneys immediately after Kentucky — were already there and decided to go in first.
That’s when the UK coaches arrived, and it led to some sort of disagreement. Message boards and social media sites lit up with tales of Pope and Kelsey nearly coming to blows outside Kinney’s home.
Those “reports” changed over time, but instigators on both sides of the rivalry fanned the flames of the situation to the point that Pope and Kelsey were both asked about it as the season neared.
While at a speaking engagement not long after the night in question, Kelsey joked about a dream he had that featured a UFC fight between Pope and himself, throwing shadow punches as he acted it all out on stage.
Pope took a question at UK’s media day a few weeks later about the supposed altercation.
“I want so badly to have fun with this, guys,” he said. “… It was really a big nothing. But I want it to be something.”
The Kentucky coach went on to celebrate the passion of rivalries in general — mentioning Indiana and North Carolina, both also on UK’s schedule this season — while downplaying whatever it was that happened outside Kinney’s home the previous month.
“I love when the competition is elite level, and that’s what happens. It gets really fun and salty and competitive,” he said. “I also am grateful for these incredible coaches. We’re at a fun time right now, where there are great coaches that are putting their whole heart and soul into this project. And sometimes that could spill over. And it should spill over sometimes, because if it never spills over, that means you’re not like in it — fully, fully in it, with your whole heart and soul.
“If you’re fully in it, then sometimes you step out of bounds. And that’s fun for fans, and it’s fun for coaches, and it’s fun for everybody.”
Kinney ended up committing to Kansas, but the in-state coaches’ loss on the recruiting trail turned into gains by fans on both sides looking for a little more life in the UK-Louisville rivalry.
Before this, the testiest recent moment between the Cats and Cards had been an on-court brawl at Freedom Hall between former players from both schools following a TBT game last summer.
The “big nothing” — as Pope put it — between the current coaches brought some of that juice back to the rivalry in the present day. And that might prove to be the spark that turns Kentucky-Louisville into something altogether different in the coming years.
Because both sides have a lot to be excited about, and when the No. 9 Cats and 11th-ranked Cards meet on the court Tuesday night in the KFC Yum Center, it should prove to be the best edition of this series in years.
Kentucky vs. Louisville
Mostly due to U of L’s recent wanderings in the college basketball wilderness, it’s been six years since this rivalry game featured two ranked teams. That one — during the 2019-20 season — went to overtime in Rupp Arena, with the Wildcats pulling out the victory.
Kentucky has won 14 of the past 17 games in the series — dating back to Calipari’s arrival in Lexington — but the Cats’ days of domination might be nearing an end.
That has nothing to do with Pope, who has assembled a Final Four contender again this season. It has everything to do with Kelsey, who appears to have the Cards on the right track for the first time in years.
Both coaches were forced to cobble together rosters from scratch last season.
Pope got the better of that deal, building a team that went to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament — the furthest UK had advanced since 2019. Kelsey did an admirable job under the circumstances, too, with his Cards going 18-2 in the ACC and earning a spot in the final AP Top 25 poll for the first time since 2020.
Kentucky hasn’t been to the Final Four since 2015, and Pope desperately wants to achieve that (and more). Louisville hasn’t even won an NCAA Tournament game since 2017, and Kelsey desperately wants to achieve that (and much more).
This season brings high hopes for both programs.
Pope has a team built to compete for a national championship, with a heavy amount of defensive upside to match the roster’s offensive promise.
Kelsey has a team suited more to his style. As the head coach at Charleston, he was known for his high-tempo, 3-point-heavy approach to offense. As soon as the transfer portal opened this past spring, Kelsey sprung into action, snapping up three of the top perimeter threats in college basketball: Ryan Conwell, Isaac McKneely and Adrian Wooley.
He added that trio to a roster that featured key returnees J’Vonne Hadley and Khani Rooths, plus Kasean Pryor, who was on track to be one of the team’s best players last season before suffering a torn ACL, which he returned from in Thursday night’s 106-70 victory over Jackson State.
After that one, Pryor took a shot at the Wildcats as he was leaving the postgame press conference. “We’ll see you guys Tuesday. After a win,” he said, before using an expletive directed at Kentucky.
Kelsey also has two players who redshirted last season: senior guard Kobe Rodgers, who played for him at Charleston, and senior center Aly Khalifa, who was a key contributor as a perimeter-oriented big on Pope’s final BYU team before transferring to Louisville last year.
Khalifa, who’s originally from Egypt, is joined by two other international post players: Sananda Fru of Germany and Vangelis Zougris of Greece, both of whom had eyebrow-raising moments in U of L’s season-opening, 104-45 victory over South Carolina State on Tuesday night.
And then there’s the headliner, Mikel Brown Jr., a McDonald’s All-American point guard who is being billed as a potential top-five pick in next year’s NBA draft and has wasted no time providing highlight-reel plays in a Louisville uniform.
The Cards haven’t had a top-five pick since Pervis Ellison went No. 1 overall in 1989. They haven’t had a top-10 selection since Samaki Walker in 1996. Brown looks like a star.
And this Louisville team appears to be well-rounded and perfectly constructed for Kelsey’s style.
The last time Kentucky visited the Yum Center, there was nearly as much blue as red in the stands, and Calipari’s Cats scored a 95-76 victory that could have been even worse for Payne’s Cards.
A UK win won’t come that easy Tuesday night, when it’ll be much more difficult for those wearing blue to make it into the building. And it looks like this annual matchup will be considerably more competitive for the foreseeable future.
The Pope-Kelsey recruiting spat made September headlines, but it’s the players on the court who should bring this rivalry back to national relevance. Both sides have plenty of talent now, and the college basketball world will be watching.
Expect the two guys in charge to keep things cordial, for the most part, moving forward. One night a year, however, the gloves will come off.
“That dude’s a competitor. I’m a competitor,” Kelsey said this fall. “He’s the head coach at one of the best programs in the country. So am I. We compete on the court. We compete in recruiting. We go after it. … But we really respect each other. I think Mark Pope is one of the finest human beings in coaching. World-class father. World-class husband.
“And I still want to tear his face off when we play in November.”
