Pat Kelsey, overhauled Louisville basketball roster just some of new faces in ACC

These days, the countdown to the college basketball season is a time for acclimating oneself to change.

That’s especially true in the ACC entering the 2024-25 campaign.

Louisville basketball fans know all about new head coach Pat Kelsey and his completely overhauled roster, which was built almost entirely through the NCAA transfer portal. The 49-year-old Cincinnati native is trying to make the program relevant for the right reasons again after it went 12-52 (5-35 ACC) across former coach Kenny Payne’s dreadful two-year tenure.

To be sure, the Cardinals experienced the most seismic changes in the ACC this offseason; and Kelsey’s rebuild will loom large as it tries to keep pace with others across the country. But there is no shortage of impactful new faces elsewhere.

For starters, the league has expanded from 15 to 18 members and now extends from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific. Throw in a talented crop of incoming freshmen and the usual roster upheaval of the portal era, and you have a lot of catching up to do.

Here’s a rundown of all the changes:

The new members: California, SMU and Stanford

Most early ACC projections have not been bullish on new members California, SMU and Stanford. But, no matter how the programs fare in Year 1, their arrival will be felt in a couple of ways.

The first — and most important: Only the top 15 teams in the final regular-season standings will earn spots in the conference tournament, which runs March 11-15 at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The second: weeklong cross-country road trips.

SMU is the most intriguing of the new additions entering 2024-25. Its regime change to prepare for the Power Four ranks — firing coach Rob Lanier after a 20-13 season and luring Andy Enfield away from USC — was one of the first dominoes to fall in John Calipari leaving Kentucky after 15 seasons for Arkansas. Enfield signed a group of seven transfers that ranks 40th in the eyes of analytics guru Evan Miyakawa of EvanMiya.com. According to The…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/pat-kelsey-overhauled-louisville-basketball-091411320.html

Author : The Courier Journal

Publish date : 2024-10-08 09:14:11

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