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There’s no love lost between Kentucky and Louisville thanks to the history the two schools have on the basketball court. Now, the legend of that rivalry has grown after Mark Pope and Pat Kelsey reportedly got into a heated exchange over a recruit who may have decided he doesn’t want to play for either of them as a result.
The men’s basketball teams representing Louisville and Kentucky met on the hardwood for the first time in 1913. However, the rivalry between the two schools that are separated by an approximately 90-minute drive down I-64 didn’t really start to heat up until they began to meet on an annual basis starting in the 1990s.
Rick Pitino was responsible for throwing some gasoline on the fire when he accepted the job as the head coach of the Cardinals in 2001 after spending close to a decade in Lexington, and while the Wildcats are firmly the big brother in a series where they hold a 40-17 edge, the fairly one-sided nature of thte rivalry hasn’t done much to tone it down.
Both teams experienced a changing of the guard prior to the start of the 2024 season. Mark Pope replaced John Calipari at Kentucky after the legendary coach brought his 15-year tenure to an end, while Pat Kelsey was tapped to right the ship after Louisville brought the disastrous Kenny Payne Era to an end.
Both men led their teams to the NCAA Tournament during their first year at the helm, and they’re both looking to build on the strong start by leveraging it to land some talent. However, it doesn’t look like they’ll be getting one of the top recruits in the country after an incident that allegedly unfolded earlier this month.
Mark Pope and Pat Kelsey reportedly blew their chance to land Tay Kinney after getting into a shouting match at his home
Tay Kinney is a five-star recruit who hails from Newport, Kentucky but headed to Atlanta to join the Overtime Elite high school program. He is ranked as the top point guard in the Class of 2026 and a Top 15 recruit overall, and Kentucky and Louisville are just a couple of big-time programs that have targeted him.
According to KSR, Pope and Kelsey were each scheduled to meet with Kinney immediately after the official recruiting window opened up at midnight on September 2nd. The former was slated to sit down with the point guard as soon as the clock struck 12 A.M., but the latter apparently decided to swoop in after his fellow coach failed to show up on time.
Jacob Polacheck relayed what supposedly went down when Pope did arrive, saying:
“Kelsey decided to go in, start his meeting Tay Kinney and I was told Pope was upset. There were some words exchanged. I was told it’s an exaggeration to say they nearly came to blows, but there was definitely some animosity between the two.”
Now, there’s no way to know if that influenced Kinney’s feelings, but as things currently stand, it does not appear he’ll be playing for either man; Kansas is reportedly the frontrunner (although Arkansas may still be in the mix), and we’ll know for sure when he announces his decision on September 28th.