Despite Big 12 Rumors, Louisville is Looking Elsewhere for Their New Coach: Report
While Baylor head coach Scott Drew shut down rumors of jumping ship at Baylor to accept the Lousiville job, Louisville fans quickly moved on to one member of the Scott Drew coaching tree, Kansas State‘s Jerome Tang.
Tang has become a popular name in the coaching carousel since taking over for the Wildcats in 2022-23, but according to a report from the Field of 68’s Jeff Goodman, Louisville is looking in a different direction.
Goodman mentioned that sources leaked three names that the Cardinals are interested in hiring as their next head coach: Seton Hall’s Shaheen Holloway, College of Charleston’s Pat Kelsey, and South Florida’s Amir Adbur-Rahim.
Jerome Tang burst onto the scene in 2022-23 by leading his team to the Elite Eight in his first season as a head coach and helping both Markquis Nowell and Keyontae Johnson earn Thirs-Team All-American honors. After a lengthy offseason coaching cycle that included job openings at Georgetown, Ole Miss, Penn State, Providence, St. John’s, Syracuse, Texas, Texas Tech, West Virginia, Wichita State, and more, Tang elected to stay in Manhattan as the Wildcats’ head coach.
Of the three coaching candidates on Louisville’s board, Pat Kelsey had the most success in 2023-24. Kelsey led College of Charleston to a 13-seed in the NCAA Tournament after a 28-7 season that included a 15-3 conference record. Holloway and Adbur-Rahim both led their teams to postseason play but took the court in the NIT instead.
USF and Adbur-Rahim will next play on Sunday, March 24th, against VCU, while Seton Hall advanced to the third round of the NIT Tournament with a win over North Texas.
While the Big 12 Conference is likely to have multiple names end up in coaching searches across the country, the league managed to fly under the radar with Louisville, at least for now.
