• Every national championship game since 2022 has featured at least one program that lost in the first round of the preceding NCAA Tournament. • That trend bodes well for Louisville basketball, which enters Year 2 of the Pat Kelsey era garnering Final Four hype after a first-round March Madness exit this past spring. • No two special seasons are built exactly the same, but there are lessons to learn from the five teams that have pulled off this feat over the past four years.

Louisville basketball is garnering Final Four hype entering Year 2 of the Pat Kelsey era.

Recent history suggests the Cardinals could go even further.

Every national championship game since 2022 has featured at least one program (five of the eight total participants) that lost in the first round of the preceding

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