DALLAS — DALLAS (AP) — Pat Kelsey started with a clean slate at Louisville, where he rebuilt the roster with transfers who had won at other places.Now they are all winning together with the Cardinals, who after two historically bad seasons are on a nine-game winning streak and back in the Top 25 for the first time in four years.“We were intentional about identifying guys that came from programs and have a background of winning,” the new coach said. “They just have that winning gene about them. … Besides having that winning gene, it’s about how tough, we’ve got tough dudes. It’s how competitive, we’ve got competitive dudes. It’s basketball IQ, we have high basketball IQ guys.”Louisville (15-5, 8-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) already has exceeded its combined overall and conference win totals from the past two seasons under Kenny Payne. He finished 12-52 in his first collegiate coaching job long after being a standout player for Hall of Fame coach Denny Crum and a member of the Cardinals’ 1986 national championship team.In its first game as a Top 25 team since January 2021, Louisville won 98-73 at ACC newcomer SMU on Tuesday night. Reyne Smith, the Australian senior guard who came with Kelsey from the College of Charleston, set a single-game program record with 10 3-pointers while scoring 30 points, and Chucky Hepburn set the school record with 16 assists. Hepburn had four lob passes that 6-foot-11 James Scott, another transfer from Charleston, converted into slam dunks against SMU. The guard’s record assist came on a banked 3-pointer by Scott. “Coach did a great job of recruiting winners,” said Hepburn, Wisconsin’s starting point guard the past three seasons who is averaging 15.1 points and 6.4 assists per game for Louisville. “We knew how good we were going to be, and we just needed to figure it out.”Smith is averaging 14.5 points a game and 78 of his 90 made field goals this season are 3-pointers. Terrence Edwards, who was the Sun Belt Conference player of the year for 32-4 Ja …
