What Louisville HC Pat Kelsey Said After 111-59 Win vs. Bahamas Select

Listen to what the head coach of the Cardinals said after their win to kick off the Baha Mar Hoops Summer League

Louisville head coach Pat Kelsey / University of Louisville Athletics

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - There might still be three months until the Pat Kelsey era of the Louisville men's basketball program officially gets underway, but we got a fantastic first look at the Cardinals on Tuesday night.

Taking on Bahamas Select in their first of two exhibition games as part of a summer foreign trip to The Bahamas, the Cardinals were relentless and efficient, rolling to a 111-59 victory on Tuesday night in Nassau.

Here's what head coach Pat Kelsey had to say following the win:

(Opening statement)

It was just good to play against somebody else. We've been beating up on each other for the last two months. You put the uniforms on for the first time and be under bright lights, and play a game for real, it felt really good. I was proud of our guys. You look at the stat sheet in 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 them.

(On they build up their passing ability during the summer)

We're constantly harping on what we call the power of the unit, right? It's amazing how much could be accomplished when nobody cares who gets the credit. We celebrate those things. Listen, this team was talented. They had a kid that scored 53 points against a very good Division I team a couple days ago. But it's not like they've been practicing for two months. It's a little bit of an All-Star team. We're gonna obviously play against much, much better defenses, but it's just- it would have been so easy just for guys to start going one-on-one. It was just so, so good to see the sharing of the ball. Thought we played hard, crashed the offensive glass to our standard. They leak out a lot, and I thought transition defense could have been a little bit better. That's an area that will address tomorrow in practice.

(On the first time seeing them playing at the fast pace)

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

(On continuing to play hard despite being lopsided in the second half)

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, and we're tracking down video from their professional careers and statistics. We did this scout 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. Really good.

(On his biggest takeaway from the game)

Well, it's kind of what I said earlier. When it gets lopsided 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 in to get his 10th assist when he had nine. But it's not about that, right? It's about us. That's what I was most proud of, for sure.

(On if there is anything that jumped out)

I don't know if anything really surprised me. They prepared like pros. They took this game very serious. Chucky Hepburn took that kid having 53 points in the previous game (vs. UNC Wilmington) personal. And I point out Chucky, a lot of different people guarded him, but like he's a stinking piranha out there defensively. That was the biggest thing. When the lights came on, and it was good to see us make shots. Obviously, we value shooting. We spend a lot of time on our shooting. Had a ton of open looks. You know, Reyne Smith's been with me forever. He made 110 threes 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 gonna go give him a hard time.

(On Khani Rooths)

I thought he bounced back. I don't think he started great. He's playing with a bunch of older dudes. He's the only freshman. Whether it was defensive lapses early on and things like that, he just didn't get out of the gate well, but he really responded. He made some really good defensive plays, knocked down a bunch of open shots. Yeah, I love coaching Khani. He's different than 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 one time, and he's got it. I noticed that about him the first week I had him ,and all the coaches that I see on the road, and talk to AAU coaches, they askl how he's doing, and I'm like, 'Man, he's gonna be really good.' He wants to be really good. He wants to be coached. So it was good to see him make some shots and play well.

(On the play around the rim)

One guy around the rim that got 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 some times early in the possession where we were kind of open, and guys would just continue to play, make the right pass, drive, touch the paint, hit the drop off.

(On 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 this after the game: I've been watching a lot of tape on Calgary. People underestimate basketball up there. People talk about there's the program that beat a ton of high majors. These guys are very, very well coached. They return, I think their top seven or eight scores. They got a NBA prospect at the point, who's not All-American, but All-Canadian. Averaged 24 a game, one of their better players. He got hurt in the first three games last year, is back now. But they're old, they're savvy, they're veteran. They can shoot at every single position. Kind of the tale of just two totally polar opposite different scouts. From a game like this, that it was just a ton of good pieces that are good one-on-one players, to a team that's extremely buttoned up and well coached, and shoots the cover off the ball. I told our guys we got to be ready to play on Thursday.

(On Kasean Pryor's versatility and hot start)

He's a very versatile player. I talked to so many people, and they're just like- kind of the same thing about Koren Johnson, we call them gamers. The lights are on, they're ready. I coached a kid at Winthrop through years ago named Keon Johnson, who scored 2500 points, all-time leading scored in the history of the school. He's five-foot-five, and you never saw the true Keon in practice. Then the lights came on, it was like, boom. It was good to see the ball go in a couple times. Get us off to a good start. I thought, both those guys did a good job.

(Photo via University of Louisville Athletics)

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