Pat Kelsey walked around Louisville's campus telling students to attend the Tennessee game

Pat Kelsey was out doing some local marketing as he attempts to reinject some much-needed life into the Louisville men’s basketball program.

Ahead of the Cardinals’ home game this Saturday against No. 12 Tennessee, Kelsey walked all throughout UL’s campus telling any student he could find that they should come to the Yum! Center and watch the game against the Volunteers. It’s the first major matchup of Kesley’s very short tenure with the Cardinals and he wants a packed house. Tipoff is set for noon EST on Saturday on the ACC Network.

After Louisville managed to fill just 12,000 of the Yum! Center’s 22,000 seats (to be fair, the student section was full) in the season-opening win against Morehead State, Kelsey is doing what he can to pump even more juice into the student fanbase. And between us, I think this is a great idea from Kelsey.

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Louisville fans understandably tried to ignore what happened over the previous two seasons under former head coach Kenny Payne, who posted a 12-52 overall record from 2022-24. Kentucky won the last two matchups by a combined 42 points. It was going to take some time for the fans to get back in good graces and fill out the Yum! Center, but Kelsey is going out of his way to bring as many back as he possibly can (except for the kid going camping).

Is Kelsey a little bit dorky? Sure, but you’d much rather have a coach willing to do this stuff than the alternative of the last two seasons. Now let’s see if he can stack some wins.