Tennessee basketball handed Louisville its second loss of the 2025 season on Tuesday night, routing the Cardinals 83-62 in Knoxville on Tuesday night. The Vols led for over 37 minutes but extended their lead to double-digits early in the second half and never looked back.
Following the game, Louisville head coach Pat Kelsey discussed Tennessee’s physicality giving the Cardinals’ issues, playing without the injured Mikel Brown and much more. Here’s everything Kelsey said.
More From RTI: Three Quick Takeaways As Tennessee Basketball Bounces Back, Routs Louisville
Opening statement
“Credit Tennessee. They were the better team tonight. Tough, physical team. Coach Barnes’ teams are always that way. Thought in the first half our defense was pretty good. They scored it at 1.05 points per possession, which is solid defensively. Seven-point deficit at halftime, and then I felt like in the second half, you credit Tennessee, they scored it at like 1.4 or 1.45, something like that, which is not good and not solid. Fouled, got to the free-throw line. I think at one point they made a bunch of threes in a row. There was a stretch there where they made some big threes to really stretch the lead. They’re the No. 1 rebounding team in the country for a reason. I thought we were getting hurt. And then I thought, if you look for any silver lining in the second half, I felt like our guys did a better job of limiting their second opportunities and second shots and showed a lot more fighting grit in the second half. But credit them, congratulations to Tennessee. We got some work to do and got a game on Saturday before the break. Gotta have a couple good days of preparation and respond the right way.”
On Louisville point guard Mikel Brown Jr. being a game-time decision, how much they were able to prepare as if he weren’t going to play
“Yeah, I mean we were hopeful the last couple days that he’d be able to play. And just to see how he responded to treatment. And he was in pain the last couple days and it limited him the last couple days in practice. And tried to get him going pregame to see how he felt by the time the game started. He just wasn’t able to go. So we had an idea. I don’t wanna say I knew he wasn’t gonna play, because Katie is awesome at what she does and he was getting treatment. So we were obviously working on contingency plans in case he didn’t.”
On Louisville dealing with the toughness and physicality of Tennessee, how much of it was just needing some shots to go in
“That helps when the shot goes in. You always credit the defense and you credit the other team. I have to go back and watch the tape. I felt like we had looks that we make a lot at a higher percentage. They just didn’t go in tonight. So that obviously helps from a physicality standpoint. I mean, they’re averaging 45% offensive rebounding percentage, which is No. 1 in the country by three full percentage points. And overall we held them to 35% on their overall misses. And like I said, I think there was a big uptick, if you will, in the fight, the grit and toughness in the second half. And I thought we were better in that regard, but they’re physical in every single aspect. They just are. They want to make it hard for you to move and to cut and screen and things like that.
And I felt like when we were able to move the ball, move people and get into multiple actions, I thought we got some really good stuff. There were times when they muddy you up with their physicality and those type things and then it kind of caused us to stop moving, not get into actions and then we got a little bit stagnant, so things that we’ll clean up. We’ll watch the tape and we’ll learn from it. Just like we learned from the last loss we had on the road and get ready for Montana on Saturday.”
On if Tennessee’s physicality hurt his team’s composure
“I don’t know about that. I mean, we were ready for the fight and we got tough kids. We got a tough team. You guys have seen us play for a long time. We got gritty, tough dudes that fight. I don’t know. It’s hard after the game sometimes without watching the tape, but when you look at second-half defense of them scoring at over 1.4 points per possession, you could really point to every single aspect from a defensive standpoint that we weren’t good enough. Transition defense, weren’t good enough. I thought our pick-and-roll play, pick-and-roll defense, not good enough. I think our off-ball screening stuff, all the stuff that we really focused on in preparation, that we were pretty good in the first half. It wasn’t good enough. And I don’t know if it was— I don’t know if it was the frustration of us not getting into a flow, not seeing shots go in from an offensive standpoint that was affected on the defensive end. I don’t know. But if that’s the case, it can’t happen. That can’t happen regardless of what’s going on on the other side of the floor. It can’t affect you from a defensive— what’s happening on the offensive end can’t affect you on the defensive end. And my gut without really diving into tape and watching is that happened quite a bit. There’s no other reason that a team like that would score at 1.4 per possession. And that’s gaudy. That’s unacceptable. To go on the road and win a game on the road, you’ve gotta be better than that regardless of what’s going on in the offensive end.”
On Louisville junior forward Sanada Fru only taking three shots
“Yeah, three shot attempts probably not enough. Can you manufacture more ways for him to get touches and things like that? Probably, but you know, yeah, we can do a better job in that regard of probably figuring out ways to get him going a little bit more. We need him to and three field ball attempts. Whether it’s schematically getting him the ball for some post ups or, you know, our guards getting him involved off the pick and roll, getting him touches in that regard. There’s a lot of different ways to do it.
“You know, Ryan (Conwell) plays the majority of his minutes at the two, so it was kind of a — and he plays some one for us. And then, you know, Kobe (Rodgers) went down, came back and then got hit again. They came over and told me with like — I don’t know what it was, seven, eight minutes left — that Kobe was done, he couldn’t go back in. They went to evaluate him and things like that. So he had a big responsibility on his shoulder today, Ryan, to kind of run the team and to be the quarterback throughout the game. So, I mean, part of that could be on me to make sure we’re manufacturing, figuring out ways to get people involved, but you know, our guards gotta get those guys involved as well.”
On Louisville sophomore guard Adrian Wooley starting in place of injured point guard Mikel Brown Jr.
“Yeah, I thought Adrian did a really good job. He didn’t know he was going in the starting lineup until a couple hours before the game. Thought he played with great aggressiveness, played with a lot of confidence, played on the attack, made some baskets to start the game, get us off, get us going. Thought he did a really good job.”
On if Louisville freshman point guard Mikel Brown Jr. is considered day-to-day
“I don’t know. You’d have to ask the medical people in that. So, you know, in terms of adjusting when somebody goes down, that’s just the deal. Every team in the country, in every single sport, has people go down (with) injuries, and you’ve heard me say this before, and it’s the old sports axiom of, next man up. And that’s why you have 13 guys, or 15 guys on scholarship — however many you’re allowed to in today’s day and age. Other guys gotta step up and change their role from time to time. That’s part of sports and we’ll do that.”
