Louisville basketball has a massive ACC showdown this evening as the Cardinals face the North Carolina State Wolfpack. NC State and Louisville enter this game red-hot, as Louisville has rattled off three straight wins, while the Wolfpack has collected six straight wins.
North Carolina State currently holds the No. 4 seed in the ACC Tournament if it started today, which means they would get the last spot in the double-bye. With the Cardinals trying to earn another marquee Quad 1 win and climb up the ACC standings, this game certainly has more implications than the last couple.
If Louisville wants to overcome the Wolfpack and earn its fourth win in a row, the Cardinals will need more from its backcourt. Mikel Brown Jr. has struggled in the last couple of games, but Pat Kelsey will be the first to tell you he is “fine” and has the utmost confidence in his 5-star true freshman.
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Pat Kelsey has no doubt in Louisville's Mikel brown Jr.
Brown missed 42 days and eight games with a severe back injury. Louisville went just 4-4 in those eight games and went from being ranked No. 11 in the nation to No. 24. Now, Louisville has a huge showdown with Brown back on the floor as he has led this team to win four of their last five since he returned.
While Brown got off to a red-hot start with 20 points and six assists while shooting 64 percent from the field, he has had two cold nights the past couple of games, including 2-10 from the field and 1-7 from beyond the arc against Wake Forest.
“He’s fine. He is back in the mix again. He is doing what point guards do, and they give the ball back to you two hours after a game starts, safe and sound, with a win. That is what point guards do. We all know he can really score. We all know he can really fill it up," Kelsey stated on Brown and his shooting slump. "Here’s the ball, go run my team. That’s what I tell him. That’s what great point guards do. They make people around them better, and that’s what he does.”
One of the reasons Kelsey is such a good coach is that he always has his players' backs and shows them his support. Kelsey is known as a players' coach, and his confidence in his true freshman shows it. The Cards will need Brown to have a better game tonight as he has scored 18 points on 3-of-17 from the floor and 2-of-12 from downtown across the past two games combined.
But Kelsey knows Brown is more than just putting the ball in the net. The 6-foot-5, 195-pound guard is an elite playmaker who gets shots open for his teammates and draws a lot of eyes when he has the ball, as he has added a combined 14 assists in the last two games. While Brown might have been struggling to connect his shots the past two games, Kelsey and the fans know he has the capability to get red-hot at any moment.
The biggest key for Brown is simply to let the game come to him and not rush things so much. Read the floor, use his elite vision, and don’t force a bad shot or a bad pass. When Brown does those things, the whole nation sees why he is a future top 10 pick in the NBA Draft.
Brown has a massive presence on the floor, and he is a key reason why Louisville has won three straight despite shooting 17 percent from the field in the last two games. Kelsey knows this team is better with him on the floor than without, and he knows he is an elite point guard who finds a way to win.