Pat Kelsey's Louisville basketball staff is coming together. Here's how salaries stack up
At least two members of Pat Kelsey's Louisville men's basketball coaching staff have dotted their I's and crossed their T's, meaning we now know how much they'll be paid for helping the Cardinals rebuild.
Assistants Brian Kloman and Thomas Carr, who are following Kelsey to U of L from Charleston, will earn base salaries of $400,000 and $300,000, respectively, according to copies of their signed offer letters obtained by The Courier Journal via open records request.
The documents are not formal contracts. Those will be finalized after both men complete their pre-employment states and background checks.
For comparison's sake, former Louisville head coach Kenny Payne's top three assistants — Danny Manning, Nolan Smith and Josh Jamieson — earned base salaries of $600,000, $400,000 and $350,000, respectively.
Two others staffers who were promoted to on-court roles last October, Gabe Snider and Milt Wagner, had $100,000 and $85,000 base salaries, respectively.
Payne was fired in March after overseeing the two worst seasons in modern program history. He called his staff "one of the best" in the game, but it amounted to a 12-52 overall record — and more losses by 20 points or more than wins.
During Chris Mack's final season at the helm, Mike Pegues was the highest-paid assistant with a $340,000 base salary. Ross McMains and Kahil Fennell had base salaries of $270,000 and $210,000, respectively.
Kelsey has been allocated $2.1 million to build his staff, according to a signed copy of his Memorandum of Understanding with the U of L Athletic Association (ULAA) obtained by The Courier Journal via open records request.
During an April 5 appearance on WLCL 93.9 FM, he described Kloman and Carr as "two of the more highly networked and connected coaches I've ever met.
"Tenacious workers, loyal to the end of the Earth and just passionate," he added. "They're phenomenal teachers, phenomenal human beings and terrific recruiters."
Kloman, an Asheville, North Carolina, native, has worked with Kelsey for 10 seasons. They joined forces in 2014, during Kelsey's nine-year stint at Winthrop, and have since compiled a 227-92 record, six regular-season conference championships and four NCAA Tournament appearances.
Other stops on Kloman's coaching journey include Tennessee Tech, North Carolina Central, Pikeville College, Daniel Webster College and Pfeiffer University.
Carr, meanwhile, just finished his second season on Kelsey's staff. Before that, the Toledo, Ohio, native spent two years as athletics director at Word of God Christian Academy in Raleigh, North Carolina; during which time he also worked as a scouting director for Your Fourth Assistant and on the AAU circuit for Team Loaded NC.
Carr has been in coaching for more than a decade, primarily on Kevin Keatts' staffs at N.C. State, UNC Wilmington and Hargrave Military Academy. He's also made stops at East Tennessee State, Chipola College and George Washington High School.
Last week, a source confirmed to The Courier Journal that Kelsey is also bringing Charleston assistant Michael Cassidy with him to Louisville. But an open records request for his signed offer letter turned up nothing Wednesday.
That's because Cassidy hails from Australia; and, as Kelsey said during his appearance on WLCL 93.9 FM, "there (are) a little bit more hoops to jump through from an HR standpoint."
Other confirmed members of Kelsey's staff include Ronnie Hamilton and Eli Foy. The former just wrapped up his second season as an assistant working under Matt McMahon at LSU — stop No. 8 in the profession — while the latter has been Kelsey's director of sports performance dating back to 2019.
Last January, the NCAA expanded men's and women's basketball coaching staffs from three to five on-court assistants. With Hamilton joining Kloman, Carr and Cassidy, Kelsey has one more spot to work with.
His two other on-court assistants at Charleston were Mitch Johnson (director of basketball operations) and Jermaine Ukaegbu (director of player development).
The former has made a Louisville logo his header photo on X, formerly Twitter; and his bio as of Wednesday afternoon said he is the Cards' director of basketball operations. But it was unclear at the time of publication whether or not he will serve in an on-court role.
Reach Louisville men's basketball reporter Brooks Holton at bholton@gannett.com and follow him on X at @brooksHolton.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville basketball staff salaries for Pat Kelsey vs Kenny Payne
