{"id":523549,"date":"2026-01-07T23:10:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T23:10:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/523549\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T23:10:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T23:10:21","slug":"pat-kelsey-claims-cam-boozer-will-be-the-no-1-pick-in-nba-draft-after-facing-duke-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/523549\/","title":{"rendered":"Pat Kelsey claims Cam Boozer will be the No. 1 pick in NBA Draft after facing Duke"},"content":{"rendered":"

ACC play is now in full swing, and on Tuesday night, two of the conference\u2019s top teams squared off. Duke<\/a> defeated Louisville<\/a> 84-73, with Cardinals head coach Pat Kelsey<\/a> praising star Cam Boozer<\/a> as a potential first overall pick in the next NBA Draft.<\/p>\n

Kelsey was not directly asked about Boozer following the game. Instead, he was asked about their pick-and-roll coverage. It was that question that prompted him to praise the Blue Devils\u2019 top player.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe probably should\u2019ve changed our coverage more,\u201d Kelsey said<\/a>. \u201cWe didn\u2019t execute the one we were in very well. They were doing a good job of running out with No. 3 [Isaiah Evans<\/a>] into guard pick and rolls. With 12 [Cameron Boozer] setting pick and rolls, he\u2019s obviously going to be the No. 1 pick in the draft for a reason. He leads them in scoring, rebounding, assists, and even steals \u2014 terrific passer, pick and roll.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boozer finished the win over Louisville with 27 points and eight rebounds. That was in 39 minutes of action. It was also his eighth time this season scoring at least 25 points in a game, with Boozer now averaging 23.3 points per game. He also has seven double-doubles.<\/p>\n

A five-star recruit in the Class of 2025<\/a>, Boozer was the third-ranked prospect overall in that recruiting cycle. Now, through the first 15 games of his career, he\u2019s become a star. Boozer averages 23.3 points, 9.7 rebounds, and 4.2 assists per game. He\u2019s shooting 58 percent from the field. Then, on the defensive end, he is putting up 1.9 steals and 0.7 blocks per game. <\/p>\n

Still, for Kelsey, Louisville had team issues on the defensive side of the ball against Duke. Three Blue Devils scored better than 20 points in the game, after all. So, there\u2019s plenty to clean up. It wasn\u2019t just a star who beat them.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then when we started getting aggressive with it toward the end of the game,\u201d Kelsey said. \u201cThey were able to get it out of the ball screen, got in the paint, played a little two-man game. We needed to do a better job with that. And then we got to guard without fouling, there was just too many times in the second half where there were just unintelligent fouls that we keep on working on cleaning up and we have to continue to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duke will now turn its attention to SMU<\/a>, which should prove to be an interesting test at home. Louisville, meanwhile, is hoping to bounce back against Boston College<\/a> on Saturday. These two teams are also set to meet again on January 26th. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ACC play is now in full swing, and on Tuesday night, two of the conference\u2019s top teams squared…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":523078,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,5392,6,12,7955],"class_list":["post-523549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba-draft","tag-basketball","tag-cameron-boozer-25-columbus","tag-nba","tag-nba-draft","tag-pat-kelsey"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115856345291414006","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/523078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}