Pat Kelsey raves about impact of Leonard Hamilton, wishes him well in retirement

Throughout his time in coaching, Leonard Hamilton became one of the legendary figures in college basketball, having his impact felt by numerous people around the sport. That includes Louisville Cardinals head coach Pat Kelsey. Now, as the Florida State Seminoles head coach plans to retire, there are more and more coaches discussing how he’s impacted them.

Following Louisville’s win over Florida State on Saturday, Kelsey took some time to address how Hamilton has impacted him and the ACC as a whole.

“I think the first thing,” Pat Kelsey said. “And there’s probably a good chance we’ll play them again in the conference tournament, as Coach Hamilton’s teams are always gritty and tough and they’ll be playing their best basketball there at the end of the year. So, I don’t want to say this is the last time I’ll play against him because there’s a chance that it won’t be, but with him retiring, I came into this league 20-something years ago, 22 years ago, when I was at Wake Forest and he was just coming into the league, his longevity, the success that he’s had — he’s the longest tenured coach in this conference.”

Leonard Hamilton has been a head coach since 1986, making three college stops and one NBA stop. He also has been at Florida State since 2002. In his time there, he’s been named the ACC Coach of the Year three different times. During that same time, Pat Kelsey began his coaching career, got a job at Wake Forest as an assistant, and eventually became a head coach himself, working his way to Louisville.

“He’s respected, not only in the ACC but around the country, to have sustained success the way he has. His teams always are tough, competitive, gritty, and he’s a world-class human too. I didn’t get to know him personally throughout the years,” Kelsey said. “But now that I’m a head coach in this league, spending time with him at the Spring Meetings. Very genuine person. He has a great heart, and I’ve really enjoyed getting to know him. And he’s got a bunch of basketball left to have this team playing great, but as he moves forward after this year, we all wish him the best as he moves into retirement, but it’s important that we all honor him for the stuff that he’s done to make this league great.”

This season, Pat Kelsey and Leonard Hamilton have now faced one another twice, with Kelsey and Louisville winning both of those games. The most recent of which was an 89-81 win on Saturday.

“Like they always are, they were tough. They kept coming at us. They never quit,” Kelsey said. “And I thought our guys shot up and showed a lot of resiliency to figure out a way to get a win at the end.”

While there is a chance these two sides do see one another again in the ACC Tournament, for the time being, both will want to focus on the end of the regular season and finishing the season with positive momentum.