After leading Louisville basketball to one of the largest turnarounds in Division I history, Pat Kelsey built a 2025-26 roster that’s garnering lofty expectations. This summer, The Courier Journal is taking a player-by-player look at the team, dissecting what each one will bring to the Cardinals. Up next:Kasean Pryor.
To catch up on previous entries in the series, click here.
Louisville basketball’s 2024-25 season changed significantly when Chucky Hepburn clipped Kasean Pryor’s left knee early in the second half of the Bad Boy Mowers Battle 4 Atlantis championship and the 6-foot-10 forward fell to the court in pain.
Torn anterior cruciate ligament, done for the year after 6 ½ games.
The Cardinals did more than make do without Pryor, but one had to wonder: What if he stayed healthy for the entire campaign?
We’re hopefully going to find out in 2025-26.
Pryor waited until the final day of the NCAA transfer portal window to announce he was running it back with U of L for what will be his sixth year of eligibility. Eleven days prior, Pat Kelsey attributed the holdup in his decision to “(getting) things straightened out from a business standpoint.”
“Kasean’s my guy; he’s like a son to me,” the coach added. “I sure as heck hope it works out.”
In the video Pryor shared to social media to make his return official, he says, “Card Nation, what’s the commotion? I’m not going anywhere.” Will he be able to bounce back from his injury and help Louisville make some noise in Year 2 of the Kelsey era?
Here’s a breakdown of Pryor’s abbreviated 2024-25 season and what his role could be in 2025-26:
Scouting report: Recapping Kasean Pryor’s 2024-25 season
No player wants to be judged by 6 ½ games, especially the first 6 ½ games of a season when you’re starting from scratch with new teammates and a new coaching staff.
Unfortunately, that’s about all we have for Pryor at Louisville. But, when he was healthy, he was a focal point of Kelsey’s system — a long, physical forward who could battle in the post while also creating opportunities for himself and disrupting opposing offenses on the perimeter.
“Kasean is an extremely versatile player,” Kelsey said during the preseason. “He can affect the game in a lot of different ways.”
Averaging 12 points on 36.8% shooting across 24.7 minutes per game, Pryor was the Cards’ third-best scorer and ranked seventh among ACC players on KenPom.com in offensive efficiency when he was ruled out for the season in early December. He was also U of L’s second-best rebounder (6.1), with 1.6 steals and 1.1 blocks per contest to boot.
The most glaring knock against the little we saw of Pryor’s game in 2024-25 was his 5-for-33 (15.2%) clip from 3-point range — this after he converted at a 35.2% rate during his breakout senior season at South Florida and went 6 for 11 during Louisville’s summer exhibition tour of the Bahamas. Against high-major competition, he made only two of his 18 tries.
We’ll never know if Pryor would have shot himself out of that slump, but the numbers say he needed to cut back on the attempts and prioritize getting to, and playing around, the rim. Twenty-nine of his 84 points came at the charity stripe, where he shot 87.9%.
There were also times when the ball would get stagnant when it reached Pryor, who according to CBBAnalytics.com had the highest usage rate of any Cards player (28.9%). More of those possessions ended in a turnover (15.4%) than they did an assist (13.3%), which isn’t ideal for any scheme but especially not Kelsey’s fast-paced, five-out offense.
Pryor came off the bench in U of L’s first four games of the season, then started all three games at the Battle 4 Atlantis. Neither he nor Kelsey made a big deal of it; with the former saying: “As long as I come out there and be the best me, be the best team(mate) that I can be, I think that’s going to translate and help us as a whole.”
Kasean Pryor’s 2025-26 outlook with Louisville basketball
The most pressing question facing Pryor — and Louisville, for that matter — entering 2025-26 is whether he’ll be close to full strength by the time the season rolls around, less than a year removed from surgery.
A lot can happen between now and then, but trainer Katie Creznic told The Courier Journal in June the forward was “right on schedule” with his rehab and that the Cards are “optimistic” he won’t miss any additional time.
“He’s at the perfect stage for the summer; because we do a lot of shooting, a lot of skill work,” Creznic said. “He’s, obviously, full (go) in the weight room, so there’s not much we have to modify for him at this point — because he’s back on the floor.
“It’s great. He feels involved, he’s not just sitting watching. It’s a really good stage of his rehab.”
Still, it wouldn’t be wise to assume Pryor will hit the court and play as if nothing ever happened — or that U of L won’t be precautious in getting him acclimated to game speed. Kelsey’s frontcourt took a hit with James Scott‘s late entry into the portal, but it’ll be deeper than it was in 2024-25 with J’Vonne Hadley and a healthy (and eligible) Aly Khalifa in addition to international signees Mouhamed Camara, Sananda Fru and Evangelos “Vangelis” Zougris.
Whenever Pryor gets up and running, he should give Louisville a lot of lineup flexibility. He can slot at either the 4 (next to the taller Khalifa or Fru) or the 5 (next to the shorter Camara, Hadley or Zougris) and stretch the floor for Kelsey’s barrage of sharpshooters on the perimeter.
Only time will tell if Pryor will be able to elevate his game after a year on the sidelines. But you know he’s itching for the chance to prove himself on a team with championship aspirations.
“God’s timing is always perfect, and I know things happen for a reason!” Pryor wrote in a post to Instagram when he was ruled out for the remainder of 2024-25. “A minor setback for a major comeback! I could never quit!”
Reach Louisville men’s basketball reporter Brooks Holton at bh*****@*****tt.com and follow him on X at @brooksHolton.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville basketball roster 2025-26: Kasean Pryor scouting report
