Louisville basketball records in danger of falling in Year 1 ith a 72-59 victory over Wake Forest on Jan. 28, Pat Kelsey passed Rick Pitino for the program’s largest one-year jump in the win column by a new coach. As of Sunday, the Cardinals (20-6, 13-2 ACC) were sitting at +12 and counting from an 8-24 finish to Kenny Payne’s final go-around.
Powering this return to the right side of the record book: historic performances up and down the roster.
There was Chucky Hepburn and Reyne Smith breaking the single-game assists and made 3-pointers records, respectively, on Jan. 21 at SMU. There was Aboubacar Traore becoming the first U of L player to grab more than 10 rebounds while clocking a shift of 15 minutes or less on Feb. 5 at Boston College. There was J’Vonne Hadley joining Hepburn and Smith to form the program’s first trio of 30-point performances since 2015 on Jan. 7 against Clemson. There was the Cards’ red-hot trip to N.C. State on Feb. 12, when they shot 60% or better from the field, 50% or better from beyond the arc and 90% or better from the free-throw line for the first time in 111 seasons.