What Louisville HC Pat Kelsey had to say after the 111-59 win over Bahamas Select

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It may be three months until the Pat Kelsey era of the Louisville men’s basketball program officially begins, but we got a fantastic first look at the Cardinals on Tuesday night.

Facing the Bahamas Select in the first of two exhibition games as part of a summer overseas trip to the Bahamas, the Cardinals were relentless and efficient, cruising to a 111-59 victory Tuesday night in Nassau.

Here’s what head coach Pat Kelsey had to say after the win:

(Opening Statement)

It was good to play against someone else. We’ve been beating each other up for the past two months. You put the uniforms on for the first time and you were under bright lights and you played a real game, it felt really good. I was proud of our boys. You look at the stat sheet in a game like that, it’s easy to start playing the ball to me and our guys didn’t do that. They kept giving up good shots for great shots and I was proud of them.

(During the summer it develops the ability to pass)

We’re constantly trying what we call the power of unity, right? It’s amazing how much could be accomplished when no one cares who gets the credit. We celebrate those things. Look, this team was talented. They had a kid score 53 points against a really good Division I team a few days ago. But it’s not like he’s been practicing for two months. It’s a bit of an All-Star team. Obviously we’re going to play against much, much better defenses, but it would have been so easy for guys to start going one-on-one. It was so good to see the ball shared. I thought we played hard, crashed the offensive glass to our standard. They leak a lot and I thought the transition defense could have been a little better. This is an area that will be addressed in practice tomorrow.

(First time I’ve seen them play fast tempo)

It was good. Obviously, we play at a very fast pace. A big part of our system is our offensive rebounding, and both require a lot of effort. Because of that, it’s important to have depth and be able to play with a lot of guys to be able to play at that standard as much as possible. Obviously Noah (Waterman) didn’t play it tonight. He has a sprained ankle that he is recovering from. … They’re working around the clock to try to get him better so he can be there Thursday. We’ll know more about James tomorrow with his wrist.

(For continuing to play hard despite being knocked off balance in the second half)

We definitely have a veteran group. Listen, we treat these games like the season. Our staff has done all sorts of information on all of these players and we’re watching videos of their careers and pro stats. We did this scout just like we would during the season and that’s part of this trip. The guys are getting used to how we roll properly, how we prepare, how we scout. We’ll do the same for a very, very good team in Calgary on Thursday. Very good.

(About the highest score in the game)

Well, that’s pretty much what I said earlier. When it gets out of balance like that, for guys to continue to play connected, play basketball the right way and not just start turning into, ‘I’m trying to get mine.’ I could have very easily left Koren Johnson to get his 10th assist when he had nine. But that’s not what it’s about, is it? It’s about us. That’s what I was most proud of, for sure.

(If there is anything that jumped out)

I don’t know if anything really surprised me. They trained like professionals. They took this game very seriously. Chucky Hepburn personally took that kid who had 53 points in the previous game (vs. UNC Wilmington). And I point out Chucky, a lot of different people guarded him, but it’s like he’s a stinking piranha there on the defensive. That was the biggest thing. When the lights came on and it was good to see us taking pictures. Obviously, we value photography. We spend a lot of time on our shoots. He had a lot of open looks. You know, Reyne Smith has been with me forever. He made 110 3-pointers last year at 40 percent, he had more open looks in this game than he might have had all of last year and I think he went like 2 for 12. So I’m going to give him a hard time.

(On Khani Rooths)

I thought he was back. I don’t think it’s off to a great start. He plays with a bunch of older guys. He is the only freshman. Whether it was defensive errors early on and things like that, it just didn’t come out well on goal, but he really responded. He made some really good defensive plays, knocked down a bunch of open shots. Yes, I love training Khani. He’s different from the normal freshman because he doesn’t want to be a freshman. He doesn’t want to be the guy holding the group back with concepts. You tell him something once and he understands. I noticed about him the first week and all the coaches I see on the road and I talk to the AAU coaches, they ask me how he’s doing and I’m like, ‘Man, he’s going to be really good. ‘ He wants to be really good. He wants to be trained. So it was good to see him make some shots and play well.

(On the game around the edge)

A guy around the rim that was fouled and landed wrong, I wasn’t very happy about that. But yeah, we gave up good shots for great shots, I felt like there were times early in the possession where we were kind of open and guys just kept making plays, making the right pass, driving, touching the paint, shooting. drop off

(If the trip was as beneficial as he thought it would be)

Well, I’ll let you know in about 36 hours or so. I told our team after the game: I watched a lot of tape about Calgary. People underestimate basketball up there. People are talking about there being a program that has surpassed a lot of big courses. These guys are very, very well trained. They come back, I think the first seven or eight scores. They had an NBA prospect at the time who is not All-American but All-Canadian. Averaged 24 per game, one of their best players. He got hurt in the first three games last year, he’s back now. But they are old, skilled, veterans. They can shoot in every position. Kind of a story of just two totally different scouts. From a game like this, that it was just a bunch of good pieces that are good one-on-one players, to a team that is extremely wound up and well-coached and shooting off the ball. We told our guys that we have to be ready to play on Thursday.

(On Kasean Pryor’s versatility and hot start)

He is a very versatile player. I’ve talked to so many people and they’re pretty much the same thing about Koren Johnson, we call them players. The lights are on, I’m ready. I coached a kid at Winthrop years ago named Keon Johnson who scored 2500 points, the most in school history. He’s five-foot-five and you’ve never seen the real Keon in action. Then the lights came on, it was like, boom. It was good to see the ball go a few times. Give us a good start. I thought they both did a good job.

(Photo via University of Louisville Athletics)

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