Louisville basketball coach Pat Kelsey and Kentucky coach Mark Pope need this NCAA tournament. They need to perform well. They need the season to end on a positive note.
Because the alternative — the unthinkable event of a first-round exit — would lead to a very uncomfortable offseason for both programs. Kelsey and Pope don’t know, and don’t want to know, what it’s like to live in the Commonwealth when the mob is restless and may turn against them.
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A first round win is expected, but it won’t be easy.
Louisville hosts South Florida in Buffalo on Thursday in the East Region. The Bulls enter the Big Dance with the nation’s third-longest active winning streak (11 games in a row).
Kentucky will face Santa Clara on Friday in St. Louis in the Midwest Region. The Broncos have lost to Gonzaga three times by a total of 31 points, which is still a smaller margin than the Wildcats’ 94-59 loss to the Zags in December.
Kelce and Pope became unwitting rivals because they were both hired in the same year. Neither was the first choice for their respective projects. Yet they entered the NCAA Tournament in the same position.
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They both need at least two wins to breathe a sigh of relief.
Kentucky’s Mark Pope and Louisville’s Pat Kelsey greet each other before the Wildcats’ game against the Cardinals in Louisville, Kentucky. November 12, 2025
Britain’s problems were evident from the start; it just took a while for everyone to catch up to them. The Cats defeated preseason No. 1 Purdue in the first exhibition game but lost to Georgetown, tied for 10th in the Big East, in the second exhibition game.
Wild swings continued throughout the season.
When Jaland Lowe suffered an early shoulder injury, roster construction was a big flaw for Pope and UK, and it became clear they had no clear backup plan at point guard.
Despite suffering a serious knee injury in February 2025, Pope’s plan to make Jaden Quintens a significant contributor to the lineup is questionable, to say the least.
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Pope has been to the Sweet 16 since at least last year, although judging from his performance this season, it hasn’t earned him much fame.
Kelce has yet to win an NCAA tournament game in his career. He made four attempts at Winthrop and the College of Charleston as No. 12 and 13 seeds, but his teams were not expected to win.
Last year, as the No. 8 seed in Lexington, London was beaten 89-75 by Creighton in a game that was never in doubt.
The Cards then crashed out of the season, losing most of their most important games until the regular season finale in Miami. Fairly or not, the narrative surrounding Kelsey began to be that he couldn’t win big games.
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If the Cards and Cats come out of the tournament’s opening weekend unscathed, that could all change.
A Sweet 16 berth would likely mean London would have to get past Michigan State, the No. 3 seed in the East Region and coach Tom Izzo, while UK would have to get past Iowa State, the No. 2 seed in the Midwest Region.
Normally, winning two games in the NCAA is nothing more than a shrug in those regards. This year, a win over either the Spartans or the Cyclones would be the best win all season for either school, based on poll rankings or KenPom.com and other analytical metrics.
That’s enough to make us optimistic about Kelce and K-Pope, who were hired two seasons ago. Because alternatives mean thinking ahead of time about how much time they will get and who might be their replacement.
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Contact sports columnist CL Brown at: clbrown1@gannett.comfollow him on X at @CLBrownHoops and subscribe to his newsletter profile.courier-journal.com/newsletters/cl-browns-latest Make sure you never miss one of his columnss.
This article originally appeared in the Louisville Courier-Journal: March Madness run could save Kentucky basketball, Louisville season
