J'Vonne Hadley remembers being at the wrong place at the wrong time on the night of Jan. 24.

The Colorado men's basketball team clung to a lead at Washington as the final minutes of the first half ticked away. Hadley's defensive assignment got the ball and tried to Euro step around him to the rim, and he caught a gnarly elbow to the face.

Back in the locker room, with the Buffaloes leading by nine at halftime, trainers diagnosed Hadley with a fractured cheekbone and told him he needed to be taken to an emergency room for treatment. He said that could wait until after the final buzzer.

"I knew that my team needed me," Hadley told The Courier Journal, "and I wanted to be out there for them and for the university. We needed the win bad, so I just went out there (and) put it in God's hands.

"Thankfully, I didn't get hit there again."

Instead, the 6-foot-6, 205-pound guard hit back. He scored 14 second-half points and finished with a game- and career-high 24 on 8-for-10 shooting. Colorado won its fourth in a row, by 17, to snap a losing streak on the Huskies' home court dating back to 2015.

Moments like that are why new Louisville head coach Pat Kelsey made Hadley a priority in constructing his inaugural roster through the NCAA transfer portal.

"J'Vonne is as reliable as any player in this year's portal class," Kelsey said in a statement when the St. Paul, Minnesota, native was introduced as a signee May 28.

"He's a grown man that comes to The Ville with a chip on his shoulder and a hunger to win."

That chip has been there for a while, fueling Hadley's journey from an overlooked recruit out of high school to a player his former head coach, Tad Boyle, called the Buffaloes' "heart and soul" during the 2023-24 season.

It started years ago, with a random message on social media that he still has stored in the back of his mind heading into his final go-around at the collegiate level.

"I'm always on a mission," Hadley said, "to prove people wrong."

'You need to pick it up'

To this day, the sender's identity remains a mystery.

Their message read, "People are doubting you. You need to pick it up." Accompanying it, Hadley said, was a link to a website with Minnesota high school basketball recruiting rankings.

He didn't specify which, but his zero-star profiles on 247Sports and Rivals are good places to start considering they don't adequately reflect the accolades he racked up between three years at Mahtomedi High School and one at Cretin-Derham Hall.

Hadley helped win four conference championships, two sectional titles and made two appearances in the state tournament. He was a four-time all-conference selection, a two-time member of the all-state first team and, as a senior in 2020, finished among the top eight for Minnesota Mr. Basketball.

The winner: Jalen Suggs. A year later, it was Chet Holmgren. They were marquee recruits and needed only one season apiece playing at Gonzaga before hearing their names called within the first five picks of the NBA draft.

Hadley said he's close with Suggs and Holmgren, who attended the same Minneapolis high school located roughly 15 minutes from Cretin-Derham Hall. They used to work out together and compete in open runs all the time growing up, which furthered his belief that he could hold his own against anyone.

"We have a lot of great talent here that a lot of people overlook," he said of the Twin Cities, "so we try to stick together."

Except Suggs and Holmgren weren't underrecruited. Hadley was. When it came time to make his college decision, his Division I options were Colorado State, Northeastern, South Dakota and UNC Greensboro.

He chose Northeastern, where he averaged just 6.1 minutes per game across 13 appearances as a freshman and totaled only 11 points and 13 rebounds. Per his bio on the team's official website, he opted out before the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament.

"I had other Division I offers," Hadley said of his next steps at the time, "but I knew I needed to mature a little bit."

So he packed his bags and headed to Indian Hills Community College in Ottumwa, Iowa.

'I found that grit'

Speaking with The Denver Gazette last December, Hadley said he embraces the role of "junkyard dog" on the court.

It was a nonnegotiable playing at Indian Hills for coach Hank Plona, who in April was named Steve Lutz's successor at Western Kentucky. Those who took a casual approach to defending and rebounding did not clock many minutes for the Warriors and therefore would not command DI interest.

"That's where I found that grit," Hadley said. "I knew that I needed to ramp it up a bit."

His commitment paid off. During his lone season at Indian Hills, he averaged 10.9 points on 54.9% shooting and was the team's top rebounder (6.2) en route to NJCAA Division I All-American honors.

The Warriors finished the 2021-22 campaign with a 27-6 record, brought home district and regional championship trophies and reached the second round of the NJCAA Tournament. Still, Hadley said he found himself in "dark places" throughout his time in Iowa, pondering whether he'd make it back to DI.

"I always believed in myself," he said, "but, at the same time, in junior college, you don't get a lot of offers until you make it to that national stage. ... You're kind of down on yourself a lot."

Plona had a mantra for Hadley when self-doubt crept in during the drives they used to go on. It was, "Trust the process."

By the end of his time at Colorado, he was one of the players his coaches trusted the most.

"He's a really dependable teammate and somebody that, as a coach, I depend on," Boyle told The Denver Gazette. "I don't ever want to take that for granted."

'Make some noise'

Hadley couldn't be more optimistic, or confident, about joining the Cardinals.

He wants to contend for ACC Defensive Player of the Year and for his energy on that end of the court to be infectious among his new teammates.

"The things that I bring to the table," Hadley said, "will instantly impact Louisville."

His stats from his first season as a full-time DI starter support that claim.

Averaging 34.3 minutes per game, Hadley finished fourth on Colorado in scoring (11.6) and did so efficiently with clips of 53.8% from the field and 41.7% from 3-point range. He was the Buffaloes' second-best rebounder (217) and facilitator, with 88 assists against 47 turnovers, and tallied a career-high 42 steals.

Going solely off his individual two-way numbers, college hoops data analyst Evan Miyakawa rated him Colorado's second-most valuable player on defense, its third-most valuable on offense and the 11th-most valuable in the Pac-12.

"He's going to be one of the most surefire impact players," Miyakawa told The Courier Journal. "Definitely trustworthy; definitely throw him right in the lineup."

With Kelsey and the roster he's put together, Hadley said making his second trip to the NCAA Tournament is not just doable. It's the expectation. That's one of the biggest reasons why he chose to play for U of L.

"I was looking for a staff," he said, "that is going to demand greatness out of me."

A couple of connections assured him that'll be the case with Kelsey's regime.

One was Ryan Larson, a former teammate of his at Cretin-Derham who played for Kelsey & Co. at Charleston during the 2022-23 season. The other was Louisville assistant coach/director of player personnel Jermaine Ukaegbu, who played for Plona at Indian Hills before transferring to Winthrop during Kelsey's stint there.

"Everybody on the staff has enthusiasm," he said. "It seems like they don't sleep; like they're always recruiting. They're always out there working, because everybody's hungry this year.

"I can make some noise in the ACC," he added. "Louisville is going to make some noise."

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: J'Vonne Hadley could be a key for Pat Kelsey