The Louisville Cardinals were the saddest team in men’s college basketball only one year ago. Kenny Payne’s disastrous head coaching tenure reached rock bottom with consecutive seasons of some of the worst basketball in history for a program with as much tradition as the Cards. In 2022-23, Louisville started 0-9 with losses Bellarmine, Wright St., and Appalachian St. to open the season. They went 2-18 in the ACC, and finished 4-27 overall. Last season wasn’t much better: Louisville went 3-17 in the ACC and finished 8-24.
Louisville got royally screwed by NCAA Selection Committee, but there’s a silver lining
Louisville’s seeding in the men’s NCAA tournament doesn’t make any sense, but there’s one reason for hope.
Photo by Jacob Kupferman/Getty Images
Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.
Payne was fired after the season, and eventually replaced by College of Charleston coach Pat Kelsey. Kelsey wasn’t the Cards’ first choice, but his infectious energy, up-tempo offense, and consecutive NCAA tournament appearances gave Cardinals fans hope for the future. If nothing else, it couldn’t get any worse.
Kelsey’s tenure hit a snag in his second game, when his Cards got routed by 20 points against an awesome Tennessee team. After that, though, the head coach steadied the ship and eventually helped make Louisville one of the feel-good stories of the college basketball season.
Wisconsin transfer Chucky Hepburn took a huge leap forward, emerging into the one of the best guards in the country. James Madison transfer Terrence Edwards, another highly coveted portal addition, also lived up to the hype, growing into a Third-Team All-ACC forward. And Kelsey? Well, all he did was earn ACC Coach of the Year honors over Duke’s Jon Scheyer.
Louisville finished 18-2 in the ACC, and 27-7 overall. It went all the way to the ACC tournament title game before losing to Duke. If this wasn’t the best Louisville team we’ve seen since Rick Pitino left town, it was close. The vibes were sky-high ... until the NCAA Selection Committee revealed its 2025 men’s NCAA tournament bracket.
Louisville an 8-seed. It’s hard to believe based on their resume, the efficiency metrics, the polls, and just common sense, but it’s still real.
The Cardinals were a No. 6 seed in our final Bracketology projection. ESPN’s final projection also had Louisville as a 6-seed, and you could find plenty of projections that had them as a 5-seed. Louisville had a good case for a No. 5 or No. 6 seed even before they went all the way to the ACC tournament championship game. Was the committee paying attention to that run at all? Hypothetically, would beating Duke without an injured Cooper Flagg have even factored in to their seeding, or did the committee already have its mind made up?
The most recent AP Poll has Louisville at No. 13 overall. The Coaches Poll has the Cardinals at No. 11. Yet when the full seed list was announced for the NCAA tournament, Louisville was No. 29.
Louisville was highly-regarded in the efficiency metrics, too, placing No. 23 on KenPom, No. 23 in the NET rankings, and No. 19 on Torvik. Every number pointed to this team being at least two seed lines higher. Instead, the No. 1 overall seed in the field, the Auburn Tigers, are waiting in the round of 32 if the Cards can get that far.
Louisville opens the tournament against a very good Creighton team that just went to the Big East tournament championship game. The Bluejays have a fifth-year superstar in Ryan Kalkbrenner, and feel a tad under-seeded themselves. The fact that a powerful Auburn team is waiting for the winner is just cruel.
For as much consternation as Louisville’s seeding is drawing, this is also a rough draw for Auburn. Why should the No. 1 overall seed have to potentially play the No. 13 team in the polls in the round of 32?
There is one silver lining about Louisville’s bracket placement, and it’s not an insignificant run. The Cardinals will begin their March Madness run in Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky. That’s usually enemy territory for Louisville fans, but for a few hours, Cardinals red will be everywhere.
There’s no guarantee Louisville will beat Creighton. Heck, I picked the Bluejays in my instant bracket predictions. But the Cards are essentially playing home games up until the Sweet 16, and that’s a big deal.
Louisville deserved better from the Selection Committee, but it will still have a chance to prove itself in the NCAA tournament. After the disaster of the program’s previous two seasons, that’s all it can ask for.
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