Pat Kelsey candidly rips NCAA Selection Committee over Louisville's seeding

Louisville (27-7, 18-2) did a complete one-eighty in their debut under Pat Kelsey. That season wasn’t rewarded, though, this afternoon by the selection committee for the 2025 NCAA Tournament.

In an interview on ESPN Radio, Kelsey addressed the Cardinals’ seeding as a No. 8 in the field despite their season’s resumé. However, to start, he expressed his appreciation of their program being in the bracket at all and for the first time this decade with their last berth being in 2019.

“Man…So, first of all, I just want to say how fortunate we are and excited we are about playing in the national tournament representing our school and our city,” Kelsey said.

From there, Kelsey was as disappointed, if not plain disrespected, as he and his team were when they found out they were on the eight-line in the South Region. He knows, based on the eye test, on overall record, and on the advanced stats, that the Cardinals should have been two or three seeds higher than where they will be in this tournament.

“Um, you know, I’ll be completely honest with you. Like, we’re watching the selection show. It was like, when that popped up, you know, it hurt a little bit, you know. You felt slighted a little bit,” Kelsey said.

“It is what it is at this point. You have the advantage of no choice. But, you know, in my opinion, we should be playing a twelve or eleven seed,” said Kelsey. “Every metric under the sun that you look at and all the experts? NET – 23, which would put us in, you know, a possible five-seed range. KenPom – 23. You know, heck, fellas…Since that December 14th game? That’s three months ago. Three months. We’ve lost two games. We went 18-2 in the ACC. We went to the conference championship game and lost to the number one team in the country.”

Louisville, with their most wins in a decade after winning more this season than they did the last three combined, has just added to their total since mid-December. They started at 6-5 but have since been victorious in 21 of their last 23 games, including a 20-3 record against the ACC with two of those losses coming, in competitive games, against Duke – one in their conference opener and one in the ACC Championship on Saturday.

Even so, the Cardinals, although they will be just an hour east to start in Lexington of all places, will open the tournament in an eight-nine matchup against Creighton (24-10) with the winner set to play the No. 1 overall seed in Auburn (28-5). That’s quite the ‘reward’ for posting the season that they did in ’24-’25.

Still, Kelsey knows the seed is the seed at this point with this being the bracket for Louisville. They’ll now try to make the most of the motivation that’ll come with it in the first game of the entire tournament against the Bluejays on Thursday.

“It is what it is,” said Kelsey. “Um, you know, if anything, to a competitor, to our guys, and to me, it puts a little fire in your belly and gives you just a little added, added little chip on your shoulder that, you know, we have to do a great job in preparation over the next couple days.”

“Obviously, Creighton is an explosive team, a dangerous team, extremely well-coached, as you guys know,” said Kelsey. “We’re excited about getting to work.”