Brooks HoltonLouisville Courier Journal
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In Terrence Edwards Jr., Pat Kelsey is certain Louisville men's basketball is getting "the purest form of competitor."
The head coach would know. He went 0-2 against Edwards during their time as Colonial Athletic Association foes.
Edwards remembers those games from his sophom*ore year fondly as part of his transition from a role player to a focal point at James Madison. What sticks out most to him about them now, with the 6-foot-6, 215-pound wing having joined the Cardinals for his final season of eligibility, is the energy Kelsey brought to the Charleston bench.
All of the coach's shouting and clapping and floor slapping was intended to fire up the Cougars, but Edwards said it also rubbed off on him. Against Kelsey's teams, he averaged 14 points, 4.5 rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block.
"His energy," Edwards said, "was the reason why I played so great against them."
Coming off a storybook season with the Dukes, in which he was named Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year, Edwards had a lot of high-major programs calling when he entered the NCAA transfer portal on March 26.
"We went after him really, really hard," Kelsey said, "because he fits in so many ways. He's a very versatile, all-around player who can score, distribute and defend."
Eight days after hitting the portal, Edwards visited U of L and committed on the spot — due in large part to the bond he formed with Kelsey.
"It's kind of hard to have a bad day," he said, "when you've got a coach like that."
An insatiable desire to win unites the 22-year-old from Atlanta and the 49-year-old from Cincinnati. Neither wants to waste any time on half measures, because Edwards gets only one season with the Cards and has two lofty goals.
The first, he said, is to bring Louisville back to "what it used to be when I was a kid" — meaning a deep run in the NCAA Tournament. The second is to go down as Kelsey's first pro coming out of the 502.
Ideally, the revival doubles as his arrival.
"It's just been a hell of a grind," Edwards said, "and I'm nowhere close to done."
'Fatt'
To most loved ones, Edwards is known as "Fatt."
Why? "I used to be a real fat kid," he said. "My cousins will never let it go."
Pushing 100 pounds at 5 years old, Edwards's athletic career began in the trenches of the gridiron. He said he gradually slimmed down over time by running stairs with his father and "grew out of football" when he reached his sophom*ore year of high school.
His heart told him then he had a "really good chance" to earn a Division I scholarship on the hardwood, so he followed it. From there, he played an integral role in back-to-back regional championships at Tucker High School and was named to Georgia's All-AAAAAA second team.
247Sports considered Edwards a three-star recruit. He ranked among the country's top 50 combo guards and Georgia's top 25 players in the Class of 2020.
Edwards said a couple of SEC programs, Georgia and South Carolina, were showing interest on the recruiting trail, but the COVID-19 pandemic threw everything for a loop. Visits had to be canceled, and calls from coaches became less frequent.
He chose James Madison and coach Mark Byington — who months earlier, before changing jobs, had offered him a scholarship to play at Georgia Southern — without having stepped foot on its campus in Harrisonburg, Virginia.
Four years later, he was the Dukes' leading scorer on a team that won a school-record 32 games and ended a March Madness drought dating back to 2013. When they got there, he spearheaded their first-round upset of Wisconsin with 14 points, five rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block. He was a finalist for the Lou Henson Award, given annually to the country's top mid-major player.
"He's done everything we've asked him to do," Byington told the Harrisonburg Daily News-Record when Edwards was named Sun Belt Player of the Year. "He's sacrificed at times. He's scored at times. He's grown as a leader. For him to be rewarded for that, I think is deserving."
Edwards' journey has made him a staunch believer in the saying, "Everything happens for a reason."
It explains why he has embraced a nickname that was once used to tease him. Now, being called "Fatt" reminds Edwards of where he comes from — "a tough area in Atlanta" where "character is big" — and the people he is representing as the first member of his immediate family to attend college.
At the top of his list are his mother, who delivers packages for a trucking company, and his father, who runs his own lawn care business. Powered by the blue-collar mentality they instilled in him, he wants to make it in the professional ranks so "they don't have to work ever again."
"I'm a grind-it-out guy," Edwards said. "I don't like things handed to me. I'm going to go take what I deserve every time in the most-humble way."
'Get this thing going'
Edwards and Kelsey dined at Wagner's Pharmacy during his visit. Over breakfast, the coach promised more players of his caliber would join him at Louisville through the portal.
They did. The Cards' 12-member transfer haul ranks second in the country on EvanMiya.com, a website dedicated to advanced college hoops analytics.
"He doesn't want any excuses of it being Year 1," Edwards said. "We want to get this thing going now."
Crushing the portal does not, however, guarantee instant chemistry. Edwards learned that lesson during his final season at James Madison. The Dukes added five transfers during the offseason; and, believe it or not, he said the practices leading up to their 14-game winning streak at the start of the 2023-24 campaign weren't great.
But, when "those lights turned on," Edwards said he and his teammates came together during a grueling road trip that put them on the map.
It started when they shocked the country with an overtime win at No. 4 Michigan State on opening night. Then, on three days' rest, they outlasted Kent State in double overtime to snap the Golden Flashes' 23-game home winning streak.
Edwards combined to clock 86 minutes and totaled 49 points on 40% shooting with 15 rebounds, nine assists and two steals. After that, he said, anything seemed possible.
"It was just the confidence we had in each other," said Edwards, who finished the season averaging a career-high 17.2 points on 42.7% shooting (34.3% from 3) with 4.4 rebounds and 3.4 assists per contest.
The good news for U of L is most players in Kelsey's inaugural transfer class are like Edwards in that they are experienced and versatile. Having played against fellow commits such as Chucky Hepburn and J'Vonne Hadley, and having connected with his new coaches, Edwards believes the Cards will hit the ground running in becoming a unit.
"Nobody will come to Louisville and not want to win, especially with that fan base and with that coaching staff," he said. "I'm pretty sure everybody's coming here to do the same thing, which is win the ACC championship and national championship."
One member of the staff Edwards will spend a lot of time with this summer is strength and conditioning coach Eli Foy. He said, "The room for growth with him is incredible."
"That's super exciting for me," Foy told The Courier Journal. "I'm like, 'Man, there's a whole other level that we haven't even unlocked yet.'
"For him to come in, utilize these resources, utilize the vision we have for him, I'm expecting him to walk out in November, whenever our first game is, and he's going to be unrecognizable."
Some things will never change, though — like Edwards feeding off Kelsey's energy.
Except this time, they'll try to win at all costs together.
"I'll be my best self," Edwards said, "because I know he'll be on me."
Reach Louisville men's basketball reporter Brooks Holton at bholton@gannett.com and follow him on X at @brooksHolton.
