LOUISVILLE, KY: Few people get to travel to the Bahamas for a romantic holiday. The men’s basketball program at Louisville will do so twice in a short period of time later this year.
Louisville will travel down there for the 2024 Battle 4 Atlantis a few weeks into the forthcoming 2024–25 season, which would be the Cardinals’ first year under new head coach Pat Kelsey. From November 27 to November 29, the Cardinals will play three games against opponents to be announced. Arizona, Davidson, Gonzaga, Indiana, Oklahoma, Providence, and West Virginia make up the remaining eight teams in the field.
However, Louisville will make a visit there in the offseason before heading to Nassau, the capital city of The Bahamas, for their regular season trip.
Louisville said late last month that they will be joining the Baha Mar Hoops Summer League on a “foreign exhibition tour” to the Bahamas. The Cardinals will face two opponents from abroad that will be announced later. They will arrive at the Baha Mar resort on July 28 and leave for the United States on August 2.
The offseason vacation was quickly organized by Louisville’s management, while Kelsey was busy building his roster from the ground up. He thinks that his team’s overseas tour will be an important part of their development.
It’s fantastic, Kelsey declared. It truly enables us to accelerate this team’s growth curve. putting into effect our methods, procedures, vocabulary, and training men how to practice.”
To begin with, Louisville will have additional practice opportunities on the trip. Based on current NCAA regulations, teams are only allowed to spend four hours a week on basketball-related activities over the summer. This covers both film analysis and any form of on-court practice. Teams also receive eight hours of strength and conditioning training each week.
The NCAA permits them to enjoy ten full practice days in addition to the four hours of on-court coaching per week when they travel abroad. These are the kind of practice days, free from any constraints, that a team would typically have during the regular season. These ten practice days will be taken by Louisville before the summer overseas trip begins.
“When we get to the end of those 10 practices, we get a great head start,” Kelsey stated.
Needless to say, any club’s offseason preparation for the next season and overall team cohesion are greatly enhanced by receiving additional practice time and the experience of facing international opponents. However, a squad like Louisville will require all the help they can get in developing chemistry.
After former head coach Kenny Payne was fired in March, every scholarship play on the team’s roster was added to the site. That meant that Kelsey and his employees had to essentially start from scratch when assembling a team.
Thankfully, Kelsey and colleagues performed admirably in this regard, securing 12 D1 transfers and a high school potential. According to On3, Louisville has the best transfer portal class in all of college basketball.
However, as we all know, chemistry is just as important as talent. For instance, Arkansas used the portal and high school to construct a very talented team during the previous offseason. In the end, the Razorbacks finished at 16–17, and Eric Musselman, their head coach, eventually left to join USC.
Offseason chemistry building is going well so far. Louisville’s first month of summer workouts has impressed Kelsey, and during that time the players have done a good job acclimating to their new surroundings. Nevertheless, the squad will benefit from having more on-court practice during the summer, which will give them an advantage come preseason time.
When things really start to pick up, that’s when we get back together, and it counts. We’ll be able to reflect on these ten practices and say, “Man, we’re way farther ahead than we should have been,” when practice resumes at the end of September or the beginning of October. Thus, it was the primary idea behind it,” Kelsey stated.
While building chemistry on the court is undoubtedly beneficial, creating a sense of community off the court is equally beneficial. While Kelsey highlights the “cultural aspect” of traveling to a foreign nation, the players themselves emphasized the value of forging team bonds outside of the basketball court.
Guard/forward J’Vonne Hadley commented, “It’ll be fun to go on that trip with the guys and get closer with each other.” Chemistry is important regardless of the team you play for. We’ll be ahead just by traveling to the Bahamas, engaging in those activities, spending time together, and enjoying the trip overall. We require that. We have a completely new team and staff, which will be really beneficial for us.
Be the first to comment