Louisville rolls by 47 in Pat Kelsey's exhibition debut

A new era of Cardinal basketball is (unofficially officially) upon us.

Matt Stone/Courier Journal/USA Today Network / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Any fears that Pat Kelsey’s exhibition debut as the Louisville men’s basketball head coach might resemble his immediate predecessor’s were quickly put to bed in the new head coach’s first KFC Yum Center dress rehearsal.

Kelsey’s Cards scored the first 10 points on their way to a 106-59 drubbing of Young Harris College Monday night.

Louisville knocked down 24 three-pointers, a total which would have been a new school record had the contest been played during the regular season. They finished the game 24-of-56 from beyond the arc, while shooting 51.3 percent from the field overall. Twenty-seven of their 40 made field goals were assisted on, and the team finished with just 11 turnovers.

“Our guys jumped on them from the tip,” Kelsey said. “Banged a bunch of threes in the first half. They were really guarding, played really hard, and got us off to a great start.”

U of L fans couldn’t help but juxtapose the dominant effort with Louisville’s 57-47 embarrassment at the hands of Lenoir-Rhyne two years ago ... or their 71-68 loss to Kentucky Wesleyan just 12 months ago.

All 11 active scholarship players got in the scorer’s book for Louisville, which was led by Terrence Edwards Jr.’s 24 points. Reyne Smith added 20, and Noah Waterman chipped in 13.

Despite his team’s obvious preparation as well as its stark talent advantage over its Division-II adversaries, Kelsey said he was still experiencing an atypically high dose of pregame jitters before his Yum Center debut.

“It was great to be out there with the lights on,” Kelsey said. “I’ve coached hundreds and hundreds of games as a head coach, coached a bunch of games in the NCAA tournament. These hours leading up to the game today might be the most nervous I’ve ever been as a head coach. It was just the culmination of a crazy seven months.”

I’m going to say the same thing I said over the summer after the Bahamas games: I know it was an exhibition game, and I know it was a Division-II opponent, but we’ve got something here. We may not be chasing a conference championship or a top four NCAA tournament seed this season, but this team is fully capable of capturing the hearts of this city, entertaining the hell out of everyone throughout the winter, and hearing their names called on Selection Sunday.

That’s much more than most of us could have envisioned seven months ago.

Monday night hoops continues a week from tonight when Spalding visits the Yum.