The Louisville Cardinals men’s basketball team has been having difficult seasons for quite some time. In the previous season, their head coach Kenny Payne could not get the team to perform well, and fans called for his removal. And then, Pat Kelsey was hired this season, it was expected that this would bring major changes in their performance. While some of it looks to have come true, Kelsey is now faced with his own challenges, which has put him on the back.

“What we came to fear about Kasean has come to be true. That’s the nature of the beast … our guys have an unbelievable mindset as we attack these two days,” Kelsey said recently as per a tweet by Louisville journalist Rick Bozich. Kelsey’s era started with his three main guys facing trouble.

Kasean Pryor is out for a year due to an ACL that he suffered during the last game against Oklahoma. Similarly, Aboubacar Traoré is out with a broken arm and is expected to not play for four weeks. Meanwhile, Koren Johnson has an undisclosed shoulder injury and will be seeing another specialist.

Traore suffered a broken arm and could only start in two of the Cardinals’ games. Similarly, before their game against the Bellarmine Knights, it was announced that even Johnson wouldn’t be able to ply his trade. If that wasn’t less, Kelsey’s main fear has come true.

Pat Kelsey’s main man is going through a difficult phase

During the second half of the Cardinals’ game against the Sooners, point guard Chucky Hepburn fell on Pryor’s leg. The latter went out of the game immediately and was visibly in much pain. Though he initially tried to test his left foot, trainers had to escort him to the locker room. In the end, he could be seen in a wheelchair on the sidelines after ending his role in the game with 6 points, 4 assists, and 2 rebounds.

Later on, it was revealed that he would have to miss the entire season which came as a shock to the Cardinals. During his limited 7 games, he averaged the third highest with 12 points and 6.1 rebounds per game. “Not the way i expected my senior year of basketball to end! Gods timing is always perfect and i know things happen for a reason! A minor setback for a major comeback! I could never quit!” he said in an Instagram post.

Hopefully, Kelsey and his mentees will be able to recover from their losses as they have an entire season ahead of them. And hopefully, Traore and Johnson will soon be back in action.