No. 11 Louisville reloads again under Pat Kelsey, with all 5 starters likely transfers

Pat Kelsey enters his third season with the Cardinals, and once again his roster is filled with transfers. All five starters for this season’s squad will probably come from the portal. Louisville has played in the NCAA Tournament in each of the last two seasons, the first time it made consecutive appearances since 2014-15. That’s also the last season the Cardinals reached the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight.

Kelsey landed several highly touted portal players, including two considered to be at the top of the class. Junior Flory Bidunga is a 6-foot-9 forward who leveraged his 7-foot-3 wingspan to be last season’s Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year at Kansas. He led the conference in shooting (64%) and blocked shots (91) while posting 13.3 points and nine rebounds per game. Senior Jackson Shelstad made the All-Big Ten team in 2024-25 for Oregon, but the 6-foot senior guard played just 12 games last season due to a hand injury. He averaged 15.6 points and 4.9 assists in 2025-26 for the Ducks.

Louisville lost eight of its top nine scorers from last season, including guards Ryan Conwell and Mikel Brown Jr. and jack-of-all-trades J’Vonne Hadley. Center Sananda Fru left for Marquette, and forward Khani Rooths went to Oklahoma. ... Besides Bidunga and Shelstad, other key newcomers are: former North Carolina guard Seth Trimble (14 ppg), who won a court order from a Kentucky judge to gain a fifth year of eligibility; junior forward Karter Knox, who averaged 8.2 points as a part-time starter at Arkansas over the past two seasons; and former Iowa forward Alvaro Folgueiras, who came off the bench last season to average 8.4 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.2 assists for the Hawkeyes.

The middle of the nonconference schedule is packed with ranked foes. They’ll start the Players Era tournament on Nov. 24 in Las Vegas against No. 19 Texas Tech and could face No. 13 St. John’s (and former Louisville coach Rick Pitino) on Thanksgiving. They host No. 7 Texas in the SEC/ACC Challenge on Dec. 1, face No. 16 Michigan in Detroit on Dec. 5 and travel to No. 23 Kentucky a week later. In the ACC, the Cardinals get two games with North Carolina (Jan. 5 at home and Feb. 8 away). Louisville also will host No. 14 Miami on Jan. 19 and No. 2 Duke on Feb. 24.

Junior guard Adrian Wooley averaged 8.7 points for Louisville last season and will play a key role as the top returner… Under Kelsey, the Cardinals have been one of the nation’s most-reliant 3-point shooting teams. They averaged 32.2 attempts beyond the arc last season, eighth-most in the nation.

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