2024 was just the beginning for Pat Kelsey and the Louisville basketball program. How Kelsey, the conductor, can go full steam ahead with an overlooked weapon.
Pat Kelsey’s first season as conductor of the Louisville basketball train was more exciting, surprising, and successful than anybody, even the most irrationally devout citizens of The State of Louisville, believed it could have been.
Like a locomotive, the program was starting from a point of immobility, weighed down by the cargo of its recent past and in desperate need of energy and momentum.
Kelsey was like fuel for the furnace. From the instant he took the stage at his first press conference, the fire in his belly was as evident as it was infectious.
In the first few weeks, nobody really knew if the train was moving. It crept slowly from the miserable station where it had sat following the firing of Rick Pitino and Tom Jurich, the sudden departure of Chris Mack, and the struggles of the Kenny Payne era.
The whole program had gone through a tunnel so dark that it’s once-celebrated, blue blood was unrecognizable.
A transfusion was needed.
“Get on the train or get out the way”
The Card Train shot out of that tunnel and rolled into the national spotlight, winning eighteen of twenty ACC games, getting to the conference tournament championship, and making the NCAA Tournament for the first time in six years.
And the accolades didn’t stop there. Kelsey was also named ACC Coach of the Year. While the Florida Gators were cutting down the Nets in the Alamodome, Kelsey was laying track for his own future Final Four hopes by reloading the roster in a way that, again, not even the most illogical Cards’ fans thought possible.
Kelsey acquired Adrian Wooley, Ryan Conwell, and Isaac McKneely from the transfer portal, complementing the commitment from Mikel Brown, Jr., the top point guard from the high school class of 2025. Within days, the University board convened, extending Kelsey’s contract by five years (2030) and a million dollars annually ($3,367,000).
While Florida finished claiming 2025 for themselves in Texas, Kelsey was working hard towards Louisville basketball owning 2026.
And it looks like his work could pay off.
But, how did this train’s conductor return the car(d)s to the tracks so quickly and efficiently?
Article continues below.
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Getting out of the tunnel
Considering the speed of the program’s return to success and the momentum it has carried into the offseason, the despair and disappointment brought on by it’s awful tournament seed (number ten team in the AP National Poll, number eight in the South Bracket), and subsequent first round loss to the Creighton Blue Jays seem like a bad memory, a nightmare that was terrible while having it but now can barely be remembered.
But that pain was sobering and real.
I remember sitting, staring in decimation at the computer screen, angry that the team had come so far, so quickly, only to exit the Tournament so succinctly, and so quickly.
What was worse, the roster had been loaded with senior transfers, so its entire productive core was done with college basketball.
Desperate to find something to feel good about, in light of the fact that the players that had played the program back into the top ten would no longer be playing, I started watching reels of the guys who could come back.
And I found something that really excited me, before I had ever even heard the names Adrian Wooley or Ryan Conwell. Or Isaac McKneely, in a positive sense, anyway.
The entire State of Louisville has Wooley, Conwell, and McNeely on the brain, and they should. The fact that a coach still in his first 365 at a school that didn’t make it out of the first weekend of the Big Dance has still been able to entice the quality and quantity of talent he has secured to play for Louisville basketball is without precedence.
Before their commitments, however, there was another player we’ve yet to see put on the red and white worth our enthusiasm: his name is Ally Khalifa.
Also read: 2025 ACC Offseason Roster Movement Tracker
The Wiz, Khalifa – Assistant Conductor
When I watched the highlights of Ally Khalifa playing at Charlotte and BYU, I was genuinely blown away.
If you haven’t taken the time to check out this guy’s game, do yourself a favor.
Khalifa transferred to the team last year from BYU, sitting out the season to rehabilitate a lingering knee injury. Khalifa stands tall, at 6’11’’. He came to Louisville weighing 285, but cut 50 pounds from his frame during his redshirt season.
Watch any Khalifa tape, and you’ll see why he intrigued Kelsey.
First things first, Aly can shoot the ball. Even at nearly seven feet tall, he’s a legitimate three point threat.
Watch film from his time at his previous two schools, and you will see specific plays ran where the intention was to get him the ball behind the arc for a shot. When you’re running an out of bounds play, and the choice shot is by a big man from three, that says quite a bit about his shooting ability. Khalifa being a green light shooter at the five bodes well for the Cards, who at times struggled with the three last year.
What makes his presence on Kelsey’s beefed up new roster so intriguing, though, is this: Ali Khalifa is simply one of the craftiest passers in college basketball, big man or not. Khalifa uses the combination of his size and shooting ability to stretch the defense, creating space for guards to drive when he draws the defensive bigs from the basket. How nice would it have been to have that on the court against Ryan Kalkbrenner?
In addition, Khalifa has a readily apparent gift for court vision in traffic, using laser-precision bounce passes to thread the needle with a kind of swag normally found in great point guards.
Just imagine how truly potent Kelsey’s offense will be next year, with the arsenal of long, athletic guards he has recently acquired in the backcourt, James Scott, the best lob threat in the nation in the front court, and Khalifa, in the middle, with all those options for distribution. It boggles the mind, entices the imagination, and will, undoubtedly, tickle the twine.
And that’s saying nothing of J’vonne Hadley and Sananda Fru, who, in their respective ways, have offensive abilities that go beyond the calling of their floor positions.
In Khalifa, Kelsey and company have a player that is truly 1 of 1.
If Kelsey is the conductor, AK can be the assistant conductor on the floor. And that is something Cards fans can certainly look forward to.
All aboard!
Pat Kelsey had some pretty formidable problems at 2 PM on March 20th.
Now, the challenge will be determining exactly what kind of nightmare the Cards will give opposing defenses. He has a lot of options, and a lot of time…a lot of weapons, and a lot of combinations to play with. There are several new, formidable soldiers in his army, and Khalifa will himself be a unique floor general amongst several highly touted ones.
The track has been laid, the train is rolling, and Kelsey will undoubtedly have everybody on the roster working on the railroad for playing time. It’s too early to know exactly how far down the tracks this train will end up going, but it seems poised for a long journey next year.
I pity whoever tries to stand in its way.
All Aboard!
