Pat Kelsey gave Louisville’s men’s basketball team the shot in the arm it desperately needed when he took over as head coach. The program took another step in the right direction by beating Kentucky on Tuesday, but the skipper found himself dealing with an injury thanks to what unfolded during the postgame festivities.
In 2022, Louisville tapped Kenny Payne to fill the void that formed after Chris Mack was fired midway through his fourth season. The Cardinals were coming off a 13-19 campaign, but they imploded by going 4-28 during his first season at the helm before “improving” to 8-24 the following year.
The school subsequently tapped Pat Kelsey from Charleston after he led the Cougars to the NCAA Tournament for the second year in a row, and he helped stage a dramatic turnaround that saw the Cardinals go 27-8 (and 18-2 in ACC play) while punching their ticket to March Madness for the first time since 2019.
Kelsey was unable to get a win over Kentucky when he got his first taste of their historic rivalry game in 2024, but he was hoping to check that box when the #12 Cardinals hosted the #9 Wildcats on Tuesday. That ended up being the case, although he suffered a setback in the wake of the contest.
Pat Kelsey dislocated his finger while trying to run away from coaches who swarmed him after Louisville beat Kentucky
The powers that be made the strange decision to schedule this year’s showdown between Louisville and Kentucky on a Tuesday at the start of November (it’s historically been played firmly in the middle of the season). However, there was still plenty of hype surrounding the matchup between the two teams that each headed into it with a perfect 2-0 record and a number next to their name.
The Wildcats were hoping to earn their fourth straight win against a Cardinals squad that was listed as a 5.5-point favorite at home, and fans at the KFC Yum! Center got to see their guys snap the winning streak with the 96-88 victory.
Kelsey rolled up to the postgame press conference sporting a finger splint on his right hand that he wasn’t rocking on the sideline, and he revealed he managed to dislocate a finger that ended up pointing “90 degrees” in the wrong direction thanks to the reception he received after the win.
Pat Kelsey dislocated his finger during Louisville’s post game celebration after beating #9 Kentucky. pic.twitter.com/7bikxgoUdg
— Cats Coverage (@Cats_Coverage) November 12, 2025
Kelsey said he was trying to evade the coaches who greeted him in the practice gym in the wake of the victory, saying:
“Those guys just started running at me, chasing me. I was just doing the, like when someone hits a walk-off home run and they try to mob him and he just runs around the field….
There’s a curtain that separates the two halves of the court, and I try to bust through, but my finger gets caught on something.”
He was quickly attended to by the team doctor who popped the finger back into place, and it doesn’t seem like it will impact his ability to coach when Louisville welcomes Ohio on Saturday.
The post Louisville Coach Pat Kelsey Suffers Gnarly Injury While Celebrating His First Win Against Kentucky appeared first on BroBible.
Louisville Coach Pat Kelsey Suffers Gnarly Injury While Celebrating His First Win Against Kentucky
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