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. Let’s begin with freshman point guard Mikel Brown Jr., U of L’s 29th McDonald’s All-American.
Pat Kelsey’s Louisville basketball revival was off to a strong start before Mikel Brown Jr. called him to commit.
But, when he did, the coach told the 6-foot-3 point guard, “You just flipped this whole stinkin’ thing, man. It’s on.
“We’re going to a Final Four,” Kelsey said, “and we’re gonna win a national championship, OK?”
“Yes, sir,” Brown said. “Let’s do it.”
Brown, a product of DME Academy in Daytona Beach, Florida, arrived on U of L’s campus in May for summer workouts as the top point guard in the Class of 2025 on the 247Sports Composite — and, according to ESPN, a projected lottery pick in the 2026 NBA Draft. He’s got a tough act to follow in Chucky Hepburn, who needed only one season to earn a spot among the Cardinals’ best floor generals of all time.
After Brown was introduced as a signee on New Year’s Day, during a timeout in Louisville’s win over North Carolina at the KFC Yum! Center, Kelsey called him a “championship point guard” — up there with Hepburn and other greats he’s coached: Chris Paul, Ish Smith and Jeff Teague. Whether the freshman can live up to the hype after commanding a seven-figure name, image and likeness deal will be one of the major storylines to follow in 2025-26.
“The expectation is just to win a national championship — plain and simple,” Brown said in March, during an interview with Louisville Sports Live on WLCL 93.9-FM. “I set all my accolades to the side; I want to win.”
Kelsey, a former Division I point guard, doesn’t turn the reins of his teams over to just anyone. Here’s what the coach saw in Brown and why he could thrive in the Cards’ system:
Scouting report: What Mikel Brown Jr. brings to Louisville
During the aforementioned interview with Louisville Sports Live in March, Brown said an injury cut short his senior season at DME Academy. He didn’t say what ailed him, but it neither derailed his McDonald’s All-American aspirations nor hindered his performance at the showcase event.
According to Jordan Divens with MaxPreps, Brown averaged 27.1 points, 5.6 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 2.1 steals per appearance with DME Academy in 2024-25. He broke the school’s single-game scoring record twice in November; first by dropping 43 points … then 50 a few days later.
So, yes: Brown knows how to get to his spots, how to get buckets and how to create them for others. With his handles and vision, he typically dictates the tempo when he’s on the court.
“To sign a player of his caliber at that position is game-changing,” Kelsey said in a video documenting Brown’s recruitment. “It’s just the burst, the explosiveness, the poise.”
Brown’s range was on display during the McDonald’s All-American Game festivities. He won the 3-point shootout, participated in the slam dunk contest and tallied a game-high five assists against only one turnover in 19:32 of run.
Before all of this, though, he sat in front of reporters and acknowledged his biggest area for growth: defense. That’s what you want to see from your starting point guard.
“If you want to be great at something, you can’t get complacent at all,” Brown said. “You’ve always got to strive to be better; and that was one of the things I came into this camp trying to work on.
“I think everybody knows that, offensively, I can do multiple things — I can pass; I can set my teammates up; I can shoot it; I can create for myself — but I really want to stand out and show everybody that I can guard at a high level and I can hold my ground.”
The biggest question mark about Brown’s game as he enters the DI ranks is his size. Specifically, how much muscle can he add to his 6-3 frame to account for the jump in competition? He appears to be progressing nicely on that front; after a few weeks of working with strength coach Eli Foy, he showed off his hops with a dunk over 6-11 Kentucky signee Malachi Moreno during USA Basketball’s U19 training camp in Colorado.
247Sports scouting director Adam Finkelstein was there and, in a post to X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday said Brown was “more explosive than I had ever seen him. … His stay in college basketball looks like it could be a short one.”
Mikel Brown Jr.’s 2025-26 outlook with Louisville basketball
Kelsey wants his PG1 to be an extension of him on the court. With that in mind, Brown told Louisville Sports Live that his goal was to be “ahead of schedule” in learning the system when he stepped foot on campus for summer workouts.
“I’m going to try to get on some calls with the coaching staff to get acclimated to the system and how they plan on playing me,” he said. “… I want to be a complete player.”
Hoop-Explorer.com lists three player projections for 2025-26: balanced, optimistic and pessimistic. At his very best, Brown has a projected net rating of 6.8 (in the 96th percentile), meaning he’d be nearly seven points per 100 possessions better than the average DI player. At his worst, the number drops to 2.8 (in the 78th percentile).
Translation: high ceiling, high floor.
Taking care of the rock#GoCards x @MikelBrownJr1pic.twitter.com/9FBJqeUbhC
— Louisville Men’s Basketball (@LouisvilleMBB) June 13, 2025
Here’s the best part: Kelsey has surrounded Brown with enough talent to the point where he doesn’t have to be the guy every game. Ryan Conwell, Isaac McKneely, Kobe Rodgers and Adrian Wooley are veterans who can provide stability in the backcourt. Big man Aly Khalifa, assuming he wins his appeal to the NCAA for an additional year of eligibility, can also take some of the facilitating load off his plate.
With Louisville’s challenging nonconference schedule, it might take a few games for Brown to find his footing before really breaking out — as was the case for Hepburn in 2024-25. Even if he’s as good as advertised from the jump, it would be foolish to assume he’s immune to freshman miscues.
That’s one of the biggest reasons he chose to play for Kelsey: the freedom Hepburn had.
“It was definitely a big impact,” Brown said, “watching how he lets Chucky play through mistakes and instills confidence in him.”
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: Mikel Brown Jr. scouting report