College of Charleston Podcast: Coach Pat Kelsey talks basketball and more

November 9, 2021

Head basketball coach Pat Kelsey promises that the College of Charleston men’s basketball team will have a whole new look this season. Literally.

When Kelsey was hired in March 2021 to take over as coach of the Cougars, he inherited a team that returned only three players from the 2020-21 squad. Kelsey and his staff had to immediately build a team from scratch under a very tight deadline. They had 10 weeks to find and recruit 10 players. He admits it wasn’t easy, but credits the staff with finding the right players.

“They did a fantastic job identifying the type of student-athletes that will fit not only in our basketball program and our culture, but at this magnificent university,” he says.

Now that team is preparing to take to the court at TD Arena this Thursday, Nov. 11, 2021, for the first home game of the 2021-22 season against the South Carolina State Bulldogs.

In this episode of the College of Charleston podcast, the man who describes himself as “making coffee nervous” talks about coaching, growing up in a basketball family and why he decided to leave a successful basketball program at Winthrop University to take over as the head coach at CofC.