March 5, 2025 • 10 mins
University of Louisville director of athletics Josh Heird discusses the watershed year ahead for NIL demands, Louisville's chances to overachieve, Pat Kelsey's contract, senior night protocols, and the women/men's ACC tournaments.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Telling you h as.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Josh Heard is the athletic director at the University of Louisville.
Welcome back, Josh, good to have you, glad to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
How are you, Terry.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Everything's beautiful, brother. I see you are getting a lot
of input now from people around America saying this. Pat
Kelsey guys got to be the coach of the Year candidates.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
He'd get my vote.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
He's done a phenomenal job and I don't have to
tell anybody in Louisville that. But I don't know what
the expectations were, but I'll say that he's exceeded him
if he's If you would have told me when he
was hired a little less than a year ago that,
going into what day is today, Mark's fifth, that we
(00:46):
had an opportunity to still win the ACC regular season
and play for a one or a two seed in
the ACC tournament, I would have said, where do I sign?
Speaker 2 (00:58):
At what moment did you get the oh boy, I
did pick the right piece here game one prior.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
To It's easy for me to say that it felt
good from the start, but from a wins and losses standpoint,
I really think if you look at when they were
six and five coming off of that UK game and
how they just just.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Played so well.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
And I know they didn't win that game in Lexington,
but they didn't back down from at the time, I
believe UK was ranked number four, and I think there
was some real disappointment in that locker room that they
didn't win that game and that they they truly believed
that they had an opportunity to do something special. And
then if you look at what's transpired since then, you know,
(01:46):
I think there's so many moments that you could point
to where you're like, hey, this, you know, you feel
really good about the higher But I think from just
the overarching fan base, I would say that I think
most of them would say after that UK game.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
He's in there on Saturday was as good as I've
ever heard in the Young Center. So I think the
meter is pegging all the way back to its loudest ever.
So you've got to feel like the energy is all
rolling in your direction. What is happening behind the scenes
that we don't see in terms of what Pat Kelsey's
messaging is to these guys in a quiet space.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
You know, I think he'd be he wouldn't have any issues.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
I if I shared this one with everybody, But it
was after the Virginia Tech game, and you know, that
was a gritty win, and Virginia Tech played really well,
and our guys played good. You I don't know, I
don't know if you'd say they played great, but obviously
the goal is to win the game, and they won
the game. But Pat postgame took him into the locker
(02:47):
room and just said, guys, you didn't play with joy today.
You know, it looked like it was like you guys
were just trying to do whatever it took to win
the game as opposed to having fun out there and
really enjoy playing with your teammates and just enjoying playing basketball.
And it just really struck a chord with me because
that's what he'd done this whole year. He hasn't focused
(03:09):
on wins and losses. He's focused on just making sure
that this team cares about one another and they play
for each other. And I think he felt like that
was missing a little bit in the Virginia Tech game,
so he tried to just kind of recenter them after
that game. And it was for me, it was a
message that'll stick with me for probably, you know, for
years to come as far as who Pat Kelsey is
and how he goes about building a team.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
I love that picture he posted of assistant coaches talking
to some of the players who were sitting there waiting
to go into a basketball game and talking about, Hey,
we're just guys from a smaller college and we're just
here to grow this program and bounce this thing back.
And the messaging that he uses for this community people
have absolutely latched onto. Instead of coming in with all
(03:51):
this swagger and stand back, let me show you how
it's done.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
He's very humble, extremely humble, extremely humble.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
That was one of the things that really attracted me
to him is when you look at the success that
he's had, which he's had a lot at the College
of Charleston and Winthrop, and he just goes about his
business and does his job every day and doesn't think
that he's better than anybody else. And you know, I
think it's one of the reasons that he stayed at
(04:20):
Winthrop as long as he did, and then obviously College
of Charleston and getting that opportunity, and to me, it's
such a good example of you don't always have to
take the next thing, as you know, and he talks
about it all the time.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Be where your feet are and good things are going
to happen.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
And he truly lived that, and now he gets to
be the head coach of one of the premier programs
in the country.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
It's pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
We're talking to Josh Hurd, athletics director for the University
of Louisville. How's the financial health considering we have the
nil that changes in the way money runs through programs. Now,
how's Louisville situated versus all the other teams we're going
to see in March Madness?
Speaker 3 (04:56):
It's you know, it's no secret that we financially weren't
in great shape the last couple of years. And you know,
season tickets and ticket sales tend to be a lagging
indicator of the success of programs, and so while we
had you know, uptick this year, I think we're really
going to see that increase as we go into next year,
(05:16):
and that's when we're going to need it the most,
especially if the house settlement. And I don't want to
get into all the nuts and bolts of just the
administrative goings on in college athletics, but essentially all of
the A four the Power Conference teams are going to
get hit with a twenty point five million dollar expense
because we're allowed, or presumably going to be allowed if
(05:37):
this settlement gets approved here in the next couple of months,
to pay our student athletes directly. And so that's what
every athletic director that's leading an A four team, that's
what they're trying to figure out right now. How do
we cover that expense and how do we make sure
that we're fielding really really competitive teams across our portfolio
of sports, but especially in the ones where you can
(05:59):
really drive revenue and put your athletic department a better situation.
And obviously we have uh you know, we have we
have five that make that generate revenue. We have two
that turn a profit, of.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Course, and that's on you, obviously to assimilate all these
folks to go into that portfolio of support to make
sure that we can meet that number. But you feel
good about it, like like you're you're making a run
at it.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Yeah, we're making progress. I tell you what. Uh this
this community and uhuh.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
They support teams and they support teams that they believe in.
And the conversations that our development and fundraising team is
having right now and our sponsorship team, Uh it is Uh,
their their answering the phone and taking a lot of meetings.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Just like you said, being in the um Center Saturday night, Uh,
you can feel.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
The excitement around town.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
And that's you know, that's how this program was built
over you know, over a long stretch. It was just
making progress and putting teams out there that people believed in.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
And that's what we're going to continue to try to do.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Nine o'clock tonight for the Cards hosting cal they get
Stanford Saturday afternoon, two o'clock for Senior Day. We know
the health of the men's program obviously is growing in
the right direction. The women's team looks great too. They're
at the tournament this week playing when Friday, they play tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
They ended up being the sixth seed. There was a
kind of a jumble of teams right there right behind
Notre Dame in NC State, where essentially they were all
within a game or tied for third through sixth, I believe,
and through tie breakers.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
They ended up getting to the sixth seeds.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
So they'll play tomorrow night in Greensboro and hopefully they
can get a handful of wins in Greensboro. That'll position
them well for the NCAA tournament. They're in the NCAA Tournament.
It's just a matter of where their seed is going
to be based on what they do in Greensboro this week.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Right, that's all speculation. Same on the men's side, what
seed they'll get and all that. And you're expecting great
support too for the men's team in the tournament next week.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
I once again, as you just have those conversations and
the water cooler conversations, the grocery store gas station conversations,
I think there's a lot of people that are going
to be headed to Charlotte.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
You know, that's an easy it's.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
One of the few direct flights out of this city.
So I think we're gonna have a lot of a
lot of fans wearing red on those flights to Charlotte.
And obviously got the double buy, so in really good
position to make a run at the ACC Championship next week.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
It's really exciting.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Josh. How many times a week does someone bad for
you to pay Pat Kelsey more money.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
It's happening. I can promise you that.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
I can promise you that, and I can assure you
We're gonna do everything that we need to do to
make sure Pat and his family feel like they're welcome
here to Louisville.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Yeah, I know that he's loving it. Think they're having
a great time here. And this is just an amazing
story across America, across the sports threshold. Everybody's watching this
story evolved and all indications are you know, we're in
for a good ride here. So appreciate that. I know
doubts baseball's doing well, and we'll talk about football later
(09:10):
on in the year. Appreciate the time, Josh, as always,
I appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Terry, I got to get this out. So Senior Day,
it's a postgame celebration this year, so not pregame, so
plan accordingly. So two o'clock, the game's gonna start.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
They're going to.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Play like it's a regular game, and then we're going
to celebrate all those seniors.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Post game.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
It's a redout, which is a tradition on Senior Day
Senior Night, and then if anybody wants to go to
the nine o'clock game tonight.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Fourteen dollars tickets, which coincides with their ranking.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Right now, go cards dot COM's the website Okay celebrating
after the men's game Saturday. Good stuff, Thank you, Josh Okay,
Thanks Erry, appreciate it. He's got a fourteen dollars ticket
price to get into tonight's game. And then Saturday you
heard of the big celebrations after the ball game. Start
time two o'clock Saturday afternoon, and it's on the ACC
network Tonight News next on whose radio had forty w
(10:01):
h A SM
Telling you h as.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Josh Heard is the athletic director at the University of Louisville.
Welcome back, Josh, good to have you, glad to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
How are you, Terry.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Everything's beautiful, brother. I see you are getting a lot
of input now from people around America saying this. Pat
Kelsey guys got to be the coach of the Year candidates.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
He'd get my vote.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
He's done a phenomenal job and I don't have to
tell anybody in Louisville that. But I don't know what
the expectations were, but I'll say that he's exceeded him
if he's If you would have told me when he
was hired a little less than a year ago that,
going into what day is today, Mark's fifth, that we
(00:46):
had an opportunity to still win the ACC regular season
and play for a one or a two seed in
the ACC tournament, I would have said, where do I sign?
Speaker 2 (00:58):
At what moment did you get the oh boy, I
did pick the right piece here game one prior.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
To It's easy for me to say that it felt
good from the start, but from a wins and losses standpoint,
I really think if you look at when they were
six and five coming off of that UK game and
how they just just.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Played so well.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
And I know they didn't win that game in Lexington,
but they didn't back down from at the time, I
believe UK was ranked number four, and I think there
was some real disappointment in that locker room that they
didn't win that game and that they they truly believed
that they had an opportunity to do something special. And
then if you look at what's transpired since then, you know,
(01:46):
I think there's so many moments that you could point
to where you're like, hey, this, you know, you feel
really good about the higher But I think from just
the overarching fan base, I would say that I think
most of them would say after that UK game.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
He's in there on Saturday was as good as I've
ever heard in the Young Center. So I think the
meter is pegging all the way back to its loudest ever.
So you've got to feel like the energy is all
rolling in your direction. What is happening behind the scenes
that we don't see in terms of what Pat Kelsey's
messaging is to these guys in a quiet space.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
You know, I think he'd be he wouldn't have any issues.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
I if I shared this one with everybody, But it
was after the Virginia Tech game, and you know, that
was a gritty win, and Virginia Tech played really well,
and our guys played good. You I don't know, I
don't know if you'd say they played great, but obviously
the goal is to win the game, and they won
the game. But Pat postgame took him into the locker
(02:47):
room and just said, guys, you didn't play with joy today.
You know, it looked like it was like you guys
were just trying to do whatever it took to win
the game as opposed to having fun out there and
really enjoy playing with your teammates and just enjoying playing basketball.
And it just really struck a chord with me because
that's what he'd done this whole year. He hasn't focused
(03:09):
on wins and losses. He's focused on just making sure
that this team cares about one another and they play
for each other. And I think he felt like that
was missing a little bit in the Virginia Tech game,
so he tried to just kind of recenter them after
that game. And it was for me, it was a
message that'll stick with me for probably, you know, for
years to come as far as who Pat Kelsey is
and how he goes about building a team.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
I love that picture he posted of assistant coaches talking
to some of the players who were sitting there waiting
to go into a basketball game and talking about, Hey,
we're just guys from a smaller college and we're just
here to grow this program and bounce this thing back.
And the messaging that he uses for this community people
have absolutely latched onto. Instead of coming in with all
(03:51):
this swagger and stand back, let me show you how
it's done.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
He's very humble, extremely humble, extremely humble.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
That was one of the things that really attracted me
to him is when you look at the success that
he's had, which he's had a lot at the College
of Charleston and Winthrop, and he just goes about his
business and does his job every day and doesn't think
that he's better than anybody else. And you know, I
think it's one of the reasons that he stayed at
(04:20):
Winthrop as long as he did, and then obviously College
of Charleston and getting that opportunity, and to me, it's
such a good example of you don't always have to
take the next thing, as you know, and he talks
about it all the time.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Be where your feet are and good things are going
to happen.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
And he truly lived that, and now he gets to
be the head coach of one of the premier programs
in the country.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
It's pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
We're talking to Josh Hurd, athletics director for the University
of Louisville. How's the financial health considering we have the
nil that changes in the way money runs through programs. Now,
how's Louisville situated versus all the other teams we're going
to see in March Madness?
Speaker 3 (04:56):
It's you know, it's no secret that we financially weren't
in great shape the last couple of years. And you know,
season tickets and ticket sales tend to be a lagging
indicator of the success of programs, and so while we
had you know, uptick this year, I think we're really
going to see that increase as we go into next year,
(05:16):
and that's when we're going to need it the most,
especially if the house settlement. And I don't want to
get into all the nuts and bolts of just the
administrative goings on in college athletics, but essentially all of
the A four the Power Conference teams are going to
get hit with a twenty point five million dollar expense
because we're allowed, or presumably going to be allowed if
(05:37):
this settlement gets approved here in the next couple of months,
to pay our student athletes directly. And so that's what
every athletic director that's leading an A four team, that's
what they're trying to figure out right now. How do
we cover that expense and how do we make sure
that we're fielding really really competitive teams across our portfolio
of sports, but especially in the ones where you can
(05:59):
really drive revenue and put your athletic department a better situation.
And obviously we have uh you know, we have we
have five that make that generate revenue. We have two
that turn a profit, of.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Course, and that's on you, obviously to assimilate all these
folks to go into that portfolio of support to make
sure that we can meet that number. But you feel
good about it, like like you're you're making a run
at it.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Yeah, we're making progress. I tell you what. Uh this
this community and uhuh.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
They support teams and they support teams that they believe in.
And the conversations that our development and fundraising team is
having right now and our sponsorship team, Uh it is Uh,
their their answering the phone and taking a lot of meetings.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Just like you said, being in the um Center Saturday night, Uh,
you can feel.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
The excitement around town.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
And that's you know, that's how this program was built
over you know, over a long stretch. It was just
making progress and putting teams out there that people believed in.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
And that's what we're going to continue to try to do.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Nine o'clock tonight for the Cards hosting cal they get
Stanford Saturday afternoon, two o'clock for Senior Day. We know
the health of the men's program obviously is growing in
the right direction. The women's team looks great too. They're
at the tournament this week playing when Friday, they play tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
They ended up being the sixth seed. There was a
kind of a jumble of teams right there right behind
Notre Dame in NC State, where essentially they were all
within a game or tied for third through sixth, I believe,
and through tie breakers.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
They ended up getting to the sixth seeds.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
So they'll play tomorrow night in Greensboro and hopefully they
can get a handful of wins in Greensboro. That'll position
them well for the NCAA tournament. They're in the NCAA Tournament.
It's just a matter of where their seed is going
to be based on what they do in Greensboro this week.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Right, that's all speculation. Same on the men's side, what
seed they'll get and all that. And you're expecting great
support too for the men's team in the tournament next week.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
I once again, as you just have those conversations and
the water cooler conversations, the grocery store gas station conversations,
I think there's a lot of people that are going
to be headed to Charlotte.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
You know, that's an easy it's.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
One of the few direct flights out of this city.
So I think we're gonna have a lot of a
lot of fans wearing red on those flights to Charlotte.
And obviously got the double buy, so in really good
position to make a run at the ACC Championship next week.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
It's really exciting.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Josh. How many times a week does someone bad for
you to pay Pat Kelsey more money.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
It's happening. I can promise you that.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
I can promise you that, and I can assure you
We're gonna do everything that we need to do to
make sure Pat and his family feel like they're welcome
here to Louisville.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Yeah, I know that he's loving it. Think they're having
a great time here. And this is just an amazing
story across America, across the sports threshold. Everybody's watching this
story evolved and all indications are you know, we're in
for a good ride here. So appreciate that. I know
doubts baseball's doing well, and we'll talk about football later
(09:10):
on in the year. Appreciate the time, Josh, as always,
I appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Terry, I got to get this out. So Senior Day,
it's a postgame celebration this year, so not pregame, so
plan accordingly. So two o'clock, the game's gonna start.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
They're going to.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Play like it's a regular game, and then we're going
to celebrate all those seniors.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Post game.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
It's a redout, which is a tradition on Senior Day
Senior Night, and then if anybody wants to go to
the nine o'clock game tonight.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Fourteen dollars tickets, which coincides with their ranking.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Right now, go cards dot COM's the website Okay celebrating
after the men's game Saturday. Good stuff, Thank you, Josh Okay,
Thanks Erry, appreciate it. He's got a fourteen dollars ticket
price to get into tonight's game. And then Saturday you
heard of the big celebrations after the ball game. Start
time two o'clock Saturday afternoon, and it's on the ACC
network Tonight News next on whose radio had forty w
(10:01):
h A SM
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