LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – The official dress rehearsal of the Pat Kelsey era has begun, and after three futile years of college basketball for the prized University of Louisville basketball program, on this night, let’s just think about what could be.
Or, let’s do this. Let’s think about what should NOT be. Offensive unselfishness and confusion. Defensive passivity. Lackluster demeanor. It should not be a basketball version of, “The Emperor Has No Clothes.”
There will be speed bumps and ACC challenges.
But after a 111-59 victory over a Bahamas Select team in their first game of the exhibition Baha Mar Classic in Nassau, Kelsey’s experienced Cardinals look like a group that enjoys sharing the ball and has a good idea what it wants to do on both ends.
That hasn’t been the case with Louisville for at least a couple of years.
The Cardinals made 43 field goals – 20 of them three-pointers – and dished out 38 assists. By comparison, last year’s Louisville team scored 91 in its exhibition opener at home against Simmons College, but dished out only 13 assists.
As long as Kentucky Wesleyan isn’t lurking in Game 2 down there in Nassau, the Cardinals might have something going.
"It was just good to play against somebody else, you know?" Kelsey said. ". . . Put the uniforms on for the first time, be under the bright lights and play a game for real. It felt really good. I was proud of our guys. If you look at the stat sheet, a game like that, it's easy to start playing 'me' ball and our guys didn't do that. They continued to give up good shots for great shots. And I was proud of that."
Of course, let’s not act like this Bahamas team was playing much defense. All right, any defense. I don’t care. There have been times the past two seasons when Louisville couldn’t get 38 assists in a passing drill. Had it been a real game, it would’ve exceeded the school assist record by four.
And this Bahamas Select team did score 104 a night earlier against UNC-Wilmington in a five-point loss. Still, Louisville's passing showed a willingness to share, and it's continued sharing even once it had a big deficit showed some maturity.
It's a reminder that this Louisville team that includes four 1,000-point scorers (one of whom, Noah Waterman, missed the game with an injury) as well as 10 players who played in last season's NCAA Tournament.
"We are constantly harping on what we call the power of the unit," Kelsey said. "It's amazing how much can be accomplished when nobody cares who gets the credit.You know, we celebrate those things. . . . We definitely have a veteran group. Listen, we're treating these games like in-season. Our staff has done all type of background on all these players. We're tracking down video from their professional careers and statistics, and we did this scouting exactly how we would do it during the season. And that's part of this trip. It's the guys getting used to how we roll. Right? How we prepare, how we scout. We'll do the same thing for a very, very good Calgary team on Thursday."
Seven Louisville players finished in double figures, led by J’Vonne Hadley with 18 points and Kasean Pryor with 17. Koren Johnson added 15, Khani Rooths 14, Reyne Smith 12, and Kader Traore 11, along with seven rebounds and six assists.
In addition to having only five unassisted field goals, Louisville had only eight midrange baskets. The rest were threes and layups or dunks.
“Wow,” was the first word Paul Rogers said on the radio broadcast postgame, and after two dismal years of play-by-play, he’s entitled to some optimism.
Overall, Louisville shot 50.6 percent from the field and 42.6 percent from three.
"I don't know if anything really surprised me," Kelsey said of his group's first game against outside competition. "They prepare like pros. You know, they took this game very seriously. Chucky Hepburn took that kid having 53 points in the previous game (against UNC Wilmington) personally. I point out Chucky, a lot of different people guarded him, but like you know (Hepburn) is a stinking Pirhana out there defensively. . . . It was good to see us make shots. Obviously we value shooting, and had lot of time on our shots and had a ton open looks."
Louisville will get a bit tougher test against Calgary on Thursday at 1.
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