Pat Kelsey channeled Winston Churchill to describe the feeling of his inaugural Louisville men’s basketball team wrapping up its two-game exhibition tour of the Bahamas on Thursday afternoon.
He called it, "The end of the beginning."
What's next, then?
"I haven't left my room since I got here," the Cardinals' first-year head coach said. "I'm going to be on the waterslide in about 24 minutes with my son; I'm going to find out a way to rent a jet ski."
Kelsey and his players earned the much-needed rest and relaxation after U of L swept its stint at the Baha Mar Hoops Summer League with a 111-71 victory over the University of Calgary in Nassau.
Kelsey billed Thursday's matchup against the Dinos as tougher sledding after Louisville's 52-point drubbing of a loosely assembled all-star team from the Caribbean island Tuesday night.
Calgary plays at Canada's highest amateur level, has a national-championship-winning coach entering his 25th season at the helm and returned the core of a roster that went 20-12 during the 2023-24 campaign. On a trip to Greece last summer, it went 0-4 in two games apiece against Wichita State and Yale (an NCAA Tournament team) but lost by an average margin of only 10.3 points.
Kelsey described Dan Vanhooren's squad as being savvy, mature and loaded with shooters. So is his; and, with a regular-season mindset, they followed his simple instructions, "We've got to be ready to play."
Kasean Pryor and Chucky Hepburncombined to score 12 of the game's first 15 points to ignite the rout. The Cards, with five players reaching double figures, never trailed and led by as many as 47. Their average margin of victory for the trip: 46.
That doesn't mean much, considering the 2024-25 season doesn't tip off until early November; but Kelsey said he told his team to "be great in our system" regardless of the score. In that regard, he should be for the most part happy with what he sees when he runs back the tape.
On Thursday, Louisville shot 52.1% (12 for 31 from 3-point range); tallied 22 assists on 37 made field goals; dominated the glass (53-25) and outscored Calgary 25-2 on second-chance opportunities. It also forced 13 turnovers and turned them into 20 points.
The Dinos shot 31% (18 for 58) and were held to three second-half 3s on 18 attempts after starting 5 for 9 from beyond the arc.
"Human nature seeps in; you can just relax (and say), 'Hey, we're up a lot; we're going to win anyway,'" Kelsey said. "They didn't do that."
Pryor led the Cards in scoring with 20 points on 6-for-8 shooting (2 for 4 from 3) to go along with five rebounds and an assist across 19 minutes. Fellow transfers Koren Johnson (15 points), Terrence Edwards Jr. (14), J’Vonne Hadley (13) and Noah Waterman (10) also broke double digits.
Waterman, a 6-foot-11 forward from BYU who is entering his sixth year in Division I, was sidelined from Tuesday's win due to a sprained ankle. He also grabbed four rebounds and blocked four shots in 15 minutes of run.
Questions surrounded sophom*ore forward James Scott's status for Thursday's game after the 6-11 Charleston transfer checked out early in the second half Tuesday due to a right wrist injury he sustained on a hard fall while going up for a dunk on a fast break. Kelsey said Scott drove him "nuts" begging to play through it and got the green light when an evaluation determined "he couldn't hurt it any worse."
The Fayetteville, North Carolina, native finished with eight points, a rebound and an assist in 12 minutes. He even knocked down a pair of lefty free throws with his non-dominant hand.
"He's consumed with hoop," Kelsey said. "(He) loves basketball like he loves to breathe."
Louisville players will go their separate ways for a while upon returning to the United States. The Cards have two more exhibitions on the docket before the 2024-25 season officially tips off Nov. 4 against Morehead State at the KFC Yum! Center.
The first of those games is scheduled for Monday, Oct. 21, at home against Young Harris College, a DII program in Georgia. Neither the date nor the opponent for the second had been announced as of Thursday.
When asked to identify glaring issues he saw during the Caribbean excursion that need to be corrected between now and then, Kelsey struggled to provide an answer. He eventually went with: everything.
"Guys are going to look at their phones, and people are going to be telling them that they're the greatest thing since sliced bread and they're the '84 Lakers and things like that," he said. "We're going to be really good. We're not good yet; we've got a long, long, long way to go."
But he couldn't be more excited about where things stand at the end of the beginning.
"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 (and) off the court to grow closer together and to start this journey in a positive way," he said. "I couldn't be prouder of this group for that."
Reach Louisville men's basketball reporter Brooks Holton at bholton@gannett.com and follow him on X at @brooksHolton.
