Pat Kelsey gives feelings on now coaching in a multi-bid league

Pat Kelsey has coached in a pair of leagues that were usually one-bid conferences in the Big South and CAA. Still, while his teams will have some more security in making the field out of the ACC, that’s not going to change how he approaches making the postseason.

Kelsey discussed now being in a multi-bid league at Louisville in an interview on ‘College Hoops Today’ with Jon Rothstein.

“Yeah, I hear what you’re saying and that’s a good question,” Kelsey said. “I’m just a big believer in having the advantage of no choice, right. When we were at Charleston, there was never a day where I was woe is me or felt sorry for the fact that we have to win the conference tournament, most likely, to go to the NCAA Tournament. We didn’t worry about that because it wasn’t changing anything to complain.

“All we did was adhere to this philosophy of just being great at the next thing and not worrying about things that we can’t control. That was one of them”.

For example, Charleston went 31-4 in ’22-’23 but apparently wouldn’t have made it in March had they not won the CAA Tournament. It’s a good thing that they did then as Kelsey was able to help take them dancing for the first time in five years and earn just their second berth of the century at the time.

“Even that year when we had won 31 games, lost four, had a 22-game winning streak? Hit a little speed bump in the middle of the year, lost two conference games, and then, boom, went on a 13-game winning streak after that? We just said that we can control what we can control,” Kelsey said. “When it got down to it, we end up winning the conference championship, didn’t have to worry about it.

“You talk to people on the committee, you talk with Joe Lunardis or whatever and, low and behold, we would have been the last team out,” Kelsey added. “We would have been the last team out and, obviously, that would have been heartbreaking. But the good news is we didn’t have to worry about it.”

During a dozen seasons at Winthrop and Charleston, Kelsey led them to four berths in the NCAA Tournament. That would have been five as they won the Big South Tournament in 2020 before the pandemic cancelled March Madness.

However, all four were a result of earning their conference’s auto-bids. The Eagles won the Big South Tournament in 2017 and 2021 for their pair of appearances. The Cougars then won the last two CAA Tournaments for their two in 2023 and 2024.

Now, with Kelsey at Louisville, he’ll be in a league that routinely sends several teams to the dance. The ACC has sent at least four teams out of the 64 berths in each of the last four seasons. That number has dwindled over that span with seven in 2021, five apiece in 2022 and 2023, and then four in 2024. Still, that’s a welcome spot for Louisville entering this new tenure as they haven’t been since 2019.

There’s certainly more wiggle room now for Kelsey in the Atlantic Coast Conference compared to his previous stops. Even so, that’s won’t alter anything in how he gets his teams into the bracket in the end.

“Honestly, I’m not going to change my philosophy here. It’s not going to change my daily approach. Not going to change our philosophy. Not going to change our culture one bit because there’s more than one bid in our conference,” said Kelsey. “We’re just going to try to have daily excellence and let the results take care of themself.”