Pat Kelsey took over this Louisville basketball program in 2024 and has made an immediate impact. The Cardinals have made it to the NCAA Tournament in both years since Kelsey took over, and before his time, the Cardinals won just 12 total games in the two years prior.
Louisville assistant’s sudden exit to Indiana stuns fans after recent title promise
With a drastic culture and program change like that, programs usually rip key coaches away from the head coach, and now, Louisville fans are seeing exactly that happen. Earlier in the week, Louisville learned that assistant coach Thomas Carr will take an assistant position with the Indiana Hoosiers, and late yesterday, the program learned that its Executive Director of Player Personnel and Strategic Initiatives, Brian Kloman, is leaving the program to become the next general manager of the Auburn Tigers.
Auburn is hiring Louisville’s Brian Kloman as the program’s General Manager, source told @On3.
— Joe Tipton (@JoeTipton) March 26, 2026
Kloman has been on Pat Kelsey’s staff for over a decade with stops at Louisville, College of Charleston, and Winthrop. First by @_JHokanson. https://t.co/WNzDh4BYQ1 pic.twitter.com/IzUmvTGulS
Pat Kelsey and Louisville basketball loses second coach this week
Kloman and Kelsey have grown extremely close over the past 12 years. When Kelsey took the Louisville position, he brought over many players and a lot of his staff, including Carr and Kloman. Now, after two years of making it to the Big Dance with the Cards, both coaches and staff members are departing Louisville and Kelsey.
In Kelsey’s first year at Louisville, the Cardinals went 27-8 and broke multiple program records. Louisville went to win its most conference wins in a regular season, had the biggest bounce back season, winning 19 more games in 2024-25 than in 2023-24, and went to the program's first ACC Title. The Cards went back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019, and as a result of that, Kloman got a nice promotion from Kelsey.
He was promoted from assistant coach to Executive Director of Player Personnel and Strategic Initiatives in August for the 2025-26 season, but that was a short stint, as he will now move to Auburn to be the Tigers' newest general manager.
In the last four years, Kelsey, Carr, and Kloman have won a lot of basketball games, having a 109-30 record, being in the NCAA Tournament in every season, winning two conference tournaments at Charleston, making the ACC Tournament Title game with Louisville, and winning the Cardinals' first NCAA Tournament game since 2017. Kelsey will now look to replace both Carr and Kloman, as he will not only have to rebuild his coaching staff but also his roster when the portal opens on April 7.
Related: 3 elite players Louisville basketball must target right now in the Transfer Portal
For all the latest news and updates on Louisville basketball's offseason and recruiting, stay tuned.