LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — People don't usually go to the Bahamas looking for more work. Louisville men's basketball will.
Pat Kelsey called the Cardinals' trip to Nassau later this month "a business trip." Coaches often say things like that when they're headed somewhere with beaches, golf courses and infinity pools.
This time, he isn't trying to fool anybody.
"The chance to get 10 additional practices and a pair of games under our belt before the school year begins is absolutely invaluable," Kelsey said Tuesday after Louisville announced it will return to the Baha Mar Hoops Summer League. "When we played in the Baha Mar Hoops Summer League two years ago, we saw what a great benefit that extra court time could have on our team, and we are looking for a similar effect with this quick trip to Nassau."
If you're looking for the most important sentence Kelsey said Tuesday, that's it.
Not the destination. Not the two exhibition games. Ten extra practices.
It will also be a quicker trip than the last one. In 2024, when Louisville played in the same event, the Cardinals went for six days. This year's trip will happen in four. The Cardinals will play games at 2 p.m. July 28 at 2 p.m. and at noon July 29, arriving the day before and departing the day after.
Kelsey didn't call it a business trip by accident and he didn't call it "quick" by accident either. Louisville's athletic department has borrowed money to keep pace with the rest of college sports, and a shorter stay at a Bahamas resort is an easier trip to defend than a longer one, even a productive one.
That the Cardinals are going at all is itself a product of how fast the sport has changed. The NCAA now allows these trips every year, not once every few seasons like it used to. What used to be a periodic novelty — team photos, a couple of exhibitions, a nice trip to remember — is turning into something closer to training camp.
There is a difference between having talent and having a team. Louisville appears to have plenty of the first. The next few weeks are about developing the second.
Two years ago, these extra practices helped lay the foundation for Louisville's climb back into relevance. This year, they're about something different: helping turn a talented collection of transfers into an ACC contender.
The Cardinals have nine newcomers, including one of the nation's best transfer classes, headlined by former Kansas center Flory Bidunga, who averaged a double-double at Kansas, and former Oregon guard Jackson Shelstad, who ran a high-major offense as a primary ball-handler.
On paper, the team looks like it could be a contender. On the court, it's still a first draft. That's why Kelsey values those 10 practices so much. And it’s not just the practices. It’s the time the players will spend together on the road. The chance to work combinations against somebody else's team before it means anything on a résumé.
Even if the resistance may not be stiff.
Both Louisville games in Nassau are against a Bahamas selection, not a college opponent. Two years ago, when the Cardinals made this same trip, one of their two games came against an actual college team, the University of Calgary Dinos. This time, there isn't one on the schedule.
That matters, but maybe not the way it sounds. The scoreboard won't tell Kelsey much. The games will still tell him something the practices can't: how his group carries itself with a crowd in the seats and a clock running. Who works well together, and what things need work. It may not tell anyone, "How good is Louisville." But it is something.
Brooks Downing, whose company operates the event, called the extra practices a way to "protect that investment" in an era of roster turnover and NIL spending.
We'll all overreact. Someone will score 20 and become an All-American before the flight home, someone else will have a rough afternoon and social media will decide Louisville has a portal problem. None of that is the point. July basketball isn't November basketball, and November basketball isn't March basketball. This trip isn't meant to prove Louisville is an ACC contender. It's meant to help build one.
There will be beaches and sunshine, if fewer pictures of both than two summers ago. Kelsey won't be looking at any of it. He'll be looking at the possessions that didn't work, the lineup that unexpectedly did, the player who quietly started leading.
He called it a business trip.
With nine new players and expectations as high as they've been in years, that's exactly what it is.
Because the most valuable thing waiting in the Bahamas isn't the beach.
It's the head start.
TICKETS: Fans interested in making the trip for Louisville's first competitions of the new season can click here for information on tickets, rooms and VIP packages.
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