Louisville basketball's 5 biggest offseason needs

In just two years under Pat Kelsey, the Louisville men’s basketball program has seen significant changes.

The Cardinals qualified for back-to-back NCAA Tournaments for the first time in over a decade, also winning a game in the big dance for the first time in nine years. Despite this, Kelsey made it clear in the press conference following the season-ending loss to Michigan State that the expectations at the U of L are greater than what he and his teams have accomplished.

“We’re well-aware at the University of Louisville what the standard is in our city, for our program,” Kelsey said. “Losing at this round, in this game, is not the standard.”

To get past the Round of 32 and into the next tier of the sport’s recent wave, Louisville basketball must address these five things in the offseason through roster construction and philosophical change.

Whether it be acquiring new talent from the transfer portal, overseas, or the high school ranks, the Cards are set to replace at least seven seniors, and Louisville is again tasked with building a competitive roster.

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Ball stopper

The Cards’ issues in the frontcourt have been well documented. But perhaps the biggest difference between Pat Kelsey’s Louisville in year one and year two was his group’s defensive ceiling on the perimeter.

There was an expected dropoff in that department following the loss of 2024-25 ACC Defensive Player of the Year Chuck Hepburn. Still, heading into this season, it seemed Louisville would have enough pieces to make up for some of its defensive production. Ryan Conwell had a better defensive season the year prior at Xavier, and Kobe Rodgers entered the season seen as a defensive sparkplug, but was coming off a torn ACL. Between the injury issues Louisville had in the backcourt this year and the lack of any true lockdown one-on-one defenders, it created a bind, exaggerating Louisville’s problems at the rim.

Kelsey even talks about it “beginning at the beginning” on the defensive end, meaning it’s the guard’s job to stop the ball and prevent the defense from breaking down at the very first level. And at times, keeping quicker guards out of the lane was a problem for Louisville. Duke’s Caleb Foster exploded in the second half of the home loss to the Blue Devils and did almost all of his work in the paint. At SMU, the Cardinals allowed a season-high 95 points as the Mustangs made 29 2-pointers.

From year one to year two under Kelsey, Louisville’s forced turnover percentage dropped from 18.5 to 16.7, which may not seem like much, but that’s an 80-team difference.

Most of the teams still playing entering this year’s Sweet 16 have players who can control the game on the perimeter defensively, and in the games where it mattered most, Louisville didn’t have that lockdown guy to turn to.

Physicality on the interior

Kelsey’s teams have always been solid at rebounding, which is usually chalked up to effort, as Louisville has been missing some nastiness on the interior during its first two seasons.

The injury to Kasean Pyror stripped Louisville of an experienced and athletic forward who could handle the basketball — a desperate need for last year’s squad. But, when it was clear he couldn’t return to the same level and give the Cards a boost with energy in the frontcourt this year, Louisville seemed desperate to find any edge or physicality on the block. It took until the final home game of the season, when Louisville started Vangelis Zougris, the Cardinals’ most impassioned competitor on the roster, at Center and committed to a more physical style of basketball.

Zougris held his own, and while he isn’t a player capable of doing it all, he carved a role for himself. By the season’s end, all of Sananda Fru, Khani Rooths, Aly Khalifa, Pyor, and Zou found ways to chip in and contribute. Louisville will need to find more consistent and reliable size and athleticism down low.

Rim protector

Louisville hasn’t had a true rim-protecting threat in the frontcourt since Pat Kelsey arrived in the 502.

Last season, the Cards sat in the 200s nationally in block percentage, and that only rose from 15th in the ACC to 11th in year two. Fru was a big reason why, as his block percentage of 7.8 was fourth-best among individual players in the conference. Still, playing just over half the minutes this season, Fru wasn’t on the floor long enough to affect the game with his shot blocking very often. Teams that started two forwards seemed to cause problems for him, as by season’s end, the German was playing good basketball; he just wasn’t consistent enough throughout the winter.

For a team that didn’t force a lot of turnovers or put pressure on the ball, the Cardinals also weren’t funneling drives into a shot blocker.

Having a force and more than one guy who can be a deterrent around the rim will be crucial for Louisville moving forward.

Poise

Another obvious difference between Pat Kelsey’s Louisville in year one and year two was the foul rate. Last year’s team consistently got the foul line and seemed to play with a sense of purpose and poise in the downhill game.

Having guys who can play off two feet and make plays for themselves and others when they get into the paint was an aspect of the offense that Louisville didn’t have — especially when Mikel Brown Jr. was out of the lineup.

Brown and Conwell seemed to get the line just by having the ball in their hands for long stretches of the game. It never seemed like getting downhill and forcing the opponent into foul trouble was a point of emphasis with the talent they had on the perimeter. Not having a viable post option who can score on their own also affects things like foul rate, but Louisville must emphasize a certain kind of poise and calmness when attacking the basket.

Catch and shoot

In back-to-back seasons, Louisville has had a player make over 100 3s, and with Ryan Conwell and Isaac McKneely moving on this offseason, the Cardinals are tasked with grabbing a sharpshooter out of the transfer portal.

Not that it was glaringly missing from this winter’s group, Louisville did end up shooting over 50 percent of its field goals from beyond the arc, but there was a catch-and-shoot element that seemed to be missing from the Cards’ offense. It was McKneely, and then a cliff of a drop-off compared to anyone else on the roster. Conwell, Brown, and Adrian Wooley created the majority of their looks off the dribble, and it was actually J’Vonne Hadley who finished the year on a 44.0 percent clip from distance.

With the injuries the U of L had in the backcourt this past winter, the Cards should look to bring in multiple high-volume catch-and-shoot players.

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