What Louisville HC Pat Kelsey Said After 111-71 Win vs. Calgary

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

Louisville head coach Pat Kelsey gives instructions during a timeout. / Twitter/X via BahaMarHoops

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Wrapping up their time in the Baha Mar Hoops Summer League, the Louisville men's basketball program put together an overwhelming effort against Calgary, capturing a 111-71 exhibition victory.

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

(Opening statement)

I sound like I'm trying to be smart when I say this, but I'm going to quote Winston Churchill right now. He said something about, this is this kind of the end of the beginning. It's not the end, obviously, it's the end of the beginning.

By that, I mean, the last eight weeks have been a lot for our guys. They showed up on June 5, didn't know anybody from anybody, and worked their tails off every day. In the weight room, on the court, off the court, to grow closer together and to start sharing in a positive way. I couldn't be prouder of this group for that.

It's been a long, long, four months. I say long, sometimes I feel like it went by like a whirlwind. But from the time Josh (Heird) called me, and offered me the job to be the head coach at the University of Louisville, to kind of right now. it's been a blur to say the least. I give my staff a ton of credit for the work that they've done. Putting this roster together, recruiting like crazy, leaving their families as we did all this.

As this first chapter comes to a close, it's important for our guys to get away from me, to probably get away from each other. Refresh their minds, refresh their bodies. Obviously, some guys have some academic stuff to finish. But then to kind of recharge as we get back in a couple of weeks for the start of the fall, and kind of jump into the next chapter full steam ahead.

I appreciate the administration for allowing us to take this trip. A lot of people have done a lot of things in conjunction with that, whether it's the donors, the fans, people that contribute to NIL, specifically with this game. Chris Brown and L&N Credit Union really stepped up in the sponsorship of some of the stuff they did with Floyd Street Media. It's hard to just single out one, but I mention Chris because of today's game specifically. But there's been so many people that have been wind at our back, that have continued to support us. We're all new. I'm new, my staff's new, all of our players are new, and the city of Louisville has embraced this team. We appreciate that. We have a great, great fan base that's passionate. I was talking to a lady last night, she's telling us how excited she was. She loved watching us play, and then she said, 'Man, do you have enough size inside?' Guy over there, lady over there, 100 year old grandmother, everybody knows their hoop in his town, and that's one of the things that makes it special. I'm excited to be here. I know our guys are excited about representing this great city and university over the next six or seven months.

(On the influence of Skip Prosser, and his thoughts on the passion of the fanbase)

Coach Prosser is a major influence in my life. Obviously, we lost him just about 17 years ago almost exactly. Wverything I do every day, so many things I do every day and I say, are things that I was taught by him. I think that's the way that people's legacy lives on. A guy like Skip Prosser was a phenomenal coach, and mentor and teacher is things I teach our guys. Like never delay gratitude, which is one of the Skip Prosser's favorite quotes. And I mention his name, because I want them to know the source, and I want his name and his legacy to continue.

Our fan base is special. There's so many college towns around the country, this is a college city. That's no disrespect to the [Louisville] Bats and to the soccer team (Louisville City FC/Racing Louisville FC). ... In this town, the biggest and brightest spotlight is on Louisville and Louisville basketball. That's one of the things that makes this job, this opportunity, Louisville basketball, great. It's the greatest fan base in the country. They had 15,000 people at a TBT game. Chris Paul's an investor in TBT, and he was there the other night here talking about it. He was talking about how crazy the fans are. Crazy in a good way, how passionate. It was one of his first trips to Louisville, and he was wowed. Kudos to our unbelievable fans.

(On Kasean Pryor's hot start, and if he expects him to be an X-Factor)

My expectation is for Kasean to play like a big time player, because I think he is one. Got us off to a great start yesterday, he's had a really good summer, he's grown in a lot of ways. He's going to be a major piece for our team.

(On Aboubacar Traore's versatility, and if his maturity rubs off on others)

I've referred to him as kind of a Swiss Army Knife. I know that's kind of a commonly used word for guys that are very versatile, because that's what he is. He affects the game in a bunch of ways. I said yesterday that you can't really say he's 'this position,' because he can play so many. I always say you are what you can guard, and he can guard a lot of positions.

Whether his mentality rubs off on other guys, yeah, I think so. But like one of the core tenets of the cultural blueprint of our program, and that's relentless effort. Second is competitive excellence, third is the power of the unit. Relentless effort is the expectation. We're not gonna throw parades because we dive for loose balls and crash the glass. That's the expectation. ... Kader is a very versatile piece.

(On which one of the hallmarks of his program he was most interested to see show up over the Bahamas trip)

It's like asking me if I love one of my kids more than the next. I love each one of them with every thing I got. ... I want to see those all the time on every possession, right? Relentless effort is A to B as hard as you can every time. Competitive excellence is every rep is a game rep. We had that this morning at 8am on our shoot around. Our guys were locked in on defending baseline out of bounds for Calgary. Then the power or the unit is the uncommon commitment to the guy next to you. That's selflessness, that's loving your teammate. I've seen a lot of all three of those over the last three months. We're far, far, far, far, from a finished product. In the world, I just wish these things didn't exist and social media didn't exist, but it does. My daughters are on it, because that's what teenagers do. That's what people do. So guys are gonna look at their phones, and people are gonna be telling them they're the greatest thing since sliced bread, and they're the '84 Lakers and things like that. We're gonna be really good, but we're not good yet. We got a long, long, long way to go. But I love this team, love the makeup, love the approach, love our toughness. We got a chance to be really, really good.

(On what he wants to see corrected before the start of the season)

I don't know right now, to be honest. 'Everything' would be another thing to answer your question. Once I finally watch this tape- I haven't left my room since we got here, and I'm gonna be on the waterslide in about 24 minutes with my son. I'm gonna find out a way to rent a jetski, and we're gonna go out on the jetski. But once I watch this tape, it'll take me about five hours to do it, because I'll pour over every single stinking possession. So the answer is everything. But until I watch the tape and break some stuff down- we got tape from all summer to watch.

(On when he knew James Scott was going to play, and him hitting left-handed free throws)

James Scott's special. He's 18 years old, he was one of the youngest players in Division I basketball last year, but he's got an old basketball mind. He's an old soul. He's consumed with who loves basketball like he loves to breathe. He just drove me nuts the last day or so. 'I'm playing, I'm playing, I'm playing, I'm playing.' We talked to the medical people and he couldn't hurt it any worse. It was just whether he's going to be able to withstand the pain and things like that. Then we'll get more evaluated when we get back, when we get off the island here. But he's special in so many ways. Inquisitive basketball mind, curious basketball mind. loves to watch tape, never leaves the gym - which I tried to get him to leave the gym, but he doesn't do it very often.

He was shooting left-handed because he can't really snap his wrist, so he was shooting left-handed free throws at the shoot around today. I think he was like 0-for-20. Maybe not, but he didn't make many. ... But how cool is that? Kid goes out there and bangs two left-handed free throws. Just a special kid. I'm blessed to be as coach.

(On what he learned about this group)

I felt when we came here, we had a chance to be really good. But I always believe that. Obviously we're gonna play much better teams, but I think we have a chance to be good. We got a long way to go. I think one of the things that was great, was we really focused on- we always focus on being process oriented. Regardless of the score, we really stressed to the guys to try to be great in our system. Just to have kind of a 0-0 mentality at the end of every media timeout. I thought they did that the other day when we got up a lot, and I thought they did today. That's hard to do. Human nature seeps in, you can just relax. 'Hey, we're up by a lot. We're gonna win anyway,' and they didn't do that. I thought some of our best defensive possessions- we made some mistakes down the stretch. Got lazy around the rim, missed scouting report assignments on a shoot first guy. But I just squint my eyes a couple of times, and I was like, 'Man, we're flying around like a bunch of dogs.' In a game in the summer when we're up by 40. That was good to see. Everything is an opportunity to improve and to get better. If we would have just wasted those last eight minutes and said, 'Hey, let's just get to the end of this game, and let's go out to the beach and have a good time,' we won't have a chance to get better. But those guys, they're mature. I think that's one of the strengths of our team.

(On the offensive rebounding in these two games)

I'll let you know more after we grade. The old Don Meyer coaching quote is: it's not what you teach, it's what you emphasize. There's certain things that we really, really, really emphasize. You can't emphasize everything, but offensive rebounding is one of them. So we'll grade it. I can't tell you right now. Obviously there was a lot of possessions with unbelievable effort of pursuing the ball, but whether you get it or not, you're still graded on your effort pursuing the ball. It's just hard to say right now whether we were to our standard or not.

(On Noah Waterman getting his first in-game action, and pairing him with Pryor)

Noah twisted hos ankle really bad right before we left on the trip. Had a bunch of swelling. We treated this whole thing like a road trip. Our scouts were serious as a train wreck. I just said, this is mid season, let's get him ready. Noah worked really hard. Katie (Kresnik) worked really hard and got him to the point where he can play today. I thought he did some really good things on both ends of the floor.

You mentioned Kasean and him playing together. I mean, everybody played together. I think that was one thing that was great to see: the chemistry on the floor beginning to build. Guys sharing the ball, playing together, making unselfish basketball plays.

(Photo of Pat Kelsey: Twitter/X via BahaMarHoops)

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