Louisville basketball Year 2 with Pat Kelsey was expectations vs reality

BUFFALO, NY — The 2025-26 Louisville basketball season was a classic case of expectations vs. reality. Year 2 of the Pat Kelsey era came to an end Saturday, with the sixth-seeded Cardinals' loss to No.

3-seed Michigan State in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at KeyBank Center — ending the program's first back-to-back March Madness appearances in more than a decade one win shy of its first trip to the Sweet 16 since 2015. UofL closed the campaign with a record of 24-11 after entering the 2026 portion of its schedule at 11-2. It was without starting point guard Mikel Brown Jr.

for 14 games — including the final six — due to a back injury that surfaced in mid-December and got reaggravated in late February . That's just one of the ways expectations clashed with reality. Let's dive deeper: The expectations When the final buzzer sounded on Florida's victory over Houston in last season's national championship game, Louisville found itself third in ESPN's way-too-early 2025-26 power rankings .

Six months later, the Cardinals came in at No. 10 in the preseason USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll . These distinctions came despite Year 1 of the Kelsey era ending in a first-round NCAA Tournament exit.