Kentucky fans will always find a reason to poke fun at Louisville and Pat Kelsey. The usual talking points are his one NCAA Tournament win in seven tries, as well as having sent just one player to the NBA in a decade of coaching. Now, BBN just got another reason to point and laugh: Louisville has lost assistant coach and program legend Peyton Siva to Rick Pitino.
Just ahead of tipoff in the fall, Adam Zagoria reported that Siva has informed Kelsey of his intention to leave for a spot on the St. John's sideline. The move reunites Siva with his former college head coach in Pitino, who helped him grow into a national championship-winning guard - even if that title technically no longer exists. We'll never let them live that one down, either. That was a fraud season.
After the NCAA stripped Louisville of their 2013 title due to a recruiting scandal (put lightly), Pitino left in disgrace. Of course, arguably the best coach in college hoops history has since recovered at St. John's. He has the Red Storm winning conference titles, something that hadn't been done up north in 40 years. Pitino and his bunch also had Duke on the ropes in the NCAA Tournament last season, before collapsing late and ultimately hitting the roster reset button.
With this news, it seemed that their reset extended to the staff, and Louisville is suffering a resulting blow. As a Kentucky fan, you just have to smile at the whole situation. Last year was not fun on our end, and losing to Louisville obviously sucked.
But it helps to see the Cards slip up as the Wildcats continue to build on their own solid offseason.
Kentucky is Working to Turn Things Around in Lexington
All of the practice and behind the scenes footage of Coach Pope as of late looks like someone who is fully invested, and having fun again. Last year, Pope seemed dejected and, at times, downright puzzled as to how to get his team to compete again.
He kept saying that Kentucky would fight to figure it out, which naturally left fans frustrated and rivals, like Louisville, howling from a distance. "Figuring it out" utlimately resulted in needing a buzzer-beater to eventually Santa Clara in the Round of 64, which led to a humiliating loss to Iowa State just days later. Not a miserable end, but certainly below the standard.
Now, however, Kentucky took that Iowa State team's best scorer, in Milan Momcilovic, and he's just the beginning of this revamped squad. The Cats have a top three transfer class (per 247Sports), and the squad seems to be coming together to try make a special run in Lexington. To boot, Coach Pope is still actively on the recruiting trail, trying to tie the bow on his 2026-27 roster.
A loss for Louisville isn't necessarily a win for Kentucky, but I know the BBN won't let Cardinals fans sweep this one under the rug, especially since Pope has had his best offseason yet in our neck of the woods.
At the end of the day, however, whoever wins between these two ever-angry rivals on December 12 at Rupp Arena will likely decide who has the right to laugh for the forseeable future. Until then, maybe we can keep things limited to a chuckle, Cats fans.
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