What Louisville HC Pat Kelsey Said After 89-80 Loss at Arkansas

The Louisville men's basketball program has run into their first true adversity of the you 2025-26 season.

Tasked with facing Arkansas in Fayetteville for their leg of the ACC/SEC Challenge, the Cardinals could not come out of Bud Walton Arena with a win, dropping the ranked showdown 89-80 on Wednesday night.

"Credit to Arkansas, they were the better team tonight," head coach Pat Kelsey said after the game. "They were the aggressor early, jumped on us. We fouled too much. They got a ton offensive rebounds. Fouling. part of it is discipline. Offensive rebounding, they got 43 percent of their misses. That's just the physicality and toughness that they played with, and it can't happen."

Louisville trailed by as much as 20 early in the second half, but was able to trim the deficit to as little as five points. However, they could not make that final push over the hump to knock off Arkansas.

The Cardinals were just 41.4 shooting from the field, including going just 8-of-37 on three-point tries, while also turning it over nine times for 14 points for the Razorbacks. They were also out-rebounded 46-36, allowing Arkansas to score 27 second chance points on 18 offensive rebounds.

"They have a lot of length and athleticism," Kelsey said of Arkansas' defense. "Pressured us, did a lot of switching just to try to mess up our rhythm, and did a good job of that. First half especially, we were very discombobulated. We didn't play a disciplined style basketball. We weren't us, as I told the guys.

"I thought in the second half, we played better on the offensive end. When it got late, it was a six point game, thought we got rushed. We're right there, we just need to get some stops and string together a couple really good offensive possessions. And I thought we got really hurried."

Here's what head coach Pat Kelsey had to say following the loss:

Head Coach Pat Kelsey