Joining us now. Coach Kelsey here at acc tip off. Yeah, I just grabbed the headset.
There.
We're good to go. It's up, coach. How we doing Hey, Nick, how are you, buddy? I'm doing well, man. I appreciate you making time for us. And then you've got a lot of interviews to be doing today. I'll ask just a few of them. Yeah, I mean it's NonStop. You go straight from live television to hear Do you do you enjoy this as a coach or does it seem like you know work. I'm sure what you do every days a lot of work, but it's probably something you love.
Is this something you love? You can be honest, Yeah.
I actually do.
Okay, I mean, obviously I believe you at.
This point of our season, like where we're at, like my mind is at the keeper center, My mind is on recruiting, my mind. You know, there's a lot of things going on so well, Obviously, when you prioritize as a coach, this might not be the number one thing that I would have on my list for today, But doing these interviews, selling our program, promoting Louisville basketball, I enjoy those things. Well. Some coaches may say it's a
little bit of a necessary evil. I don't feel that way, whether it's being on campus and throwing T shirts out to students, or doing interviews or speaking engagements. I mean, I'm a human being and I only have so much bandwidth and can't buy, locate and be two places at once. But it is aspects of the job that I do enjoy.
Well, it's good that you enjoy because it's very important. I mean, those things definitely matter your first year in the ACC. I know you guys have had spring meetings and whatnot. How familiar are you with the coaches in this league? I know the coaching world is kind of like a fraternity. Are you familiar with a lot of these guys everybody?
Yeah? And I think we have a group of coaches that are as good or better than any conference in the country. I have the utmost respect for the level of programs and coaching in the ACC.
Now, before we get to your personnel this year, let's talk about this schedule really challenging in the non conference slate and of course a lot of really tough ACC games. As a coach, are you someone that wants to have a challenging non conference schedule every year? Regardless of your personnel. Are you somebody that's more so going to, you know, schedule based on what you have coming back. I mean, it's tough to know what your roster's going to look
like this day and age. But when you see this non conference schedule, I mean a lot of big opportunities, but certainly challenging.
Yeah. I think when it all was said and done and it came out, you looked at it and its totality, it was like, holy cow.
One of the toughest I've seen at Louisville maybe ever non conference.
It's probably the toughest non conference schedule in the country for sure. At this point. It's the advantage of no choice, is what I like to say, is the way to
look at it. Yeah, And the silver lining would be, you know, obviously we're going to be battle tested by the time we get to the guts of the ACC season like no other program there sure isn't going to have gonna be any questions about any quad one type games or anything like that like there is with some teams when it comes to their resume with the NCAA Tournament. But I think it's obviously very challenging our fan base is obviously excited about it, and all we can do
anything about is tomorrow's practice at three pm. So can't worry about the game on January something or something or November something. It's just let's just get better tomorrow.
Coach bet Kelsey's our guest joining us here live at the ACC basketball tip off here in Charlotte. Obviously a brand new roster for you, and you talked about this a few times since you got to Louisville that at Charleston you guys were already having to adjust to the new world of losing players to the portal and having to go out and fill those spots. Very unique situation here where you have really almost an entirely new roster. I know you brought some guys with you from Charleston,
but how has practice men? I know you guys have been working out for quite some time, but how is it as a coach to know that the majority of the guys you're going to be utilizing. You know, I'm sure you're acclimated at this point, but these are guys you've never coached before.
Oh yeah, like you said, it's been a while now June fifth and now.
So it doesn't feel new anymore, no good.
And you know, I really felt from when we first started our workouts in early June, it was a connected group. It was a group that picked stuff up very quickly,
a group that connected off the floor very quickly. So and it's a veteran group, right, They've logged a ton of minutes, They've had a lot of success, They've won a lot of games at the Division one level, at a high level of Division one, and you know, it was an easier kind of process than I thought it was going to be for the group to come together. The advantage of having the ten additional days of practice because of the Bahamas trip was very helpful, which allowed
us to get in mid season mode. For about ten days. We were able to play against another opponent, which was nice, even though they weren't the best teams in the world. We played against two other teams, so our guys were able to kind of feel how it is in the game setting. We did some preparation, and then you know, the fall practices have been awesome in the last two weeks or so since full practices start. I love where this team's trending.
When I look at your personnel and you know, I'm not in practice every day. I feel like you definitely wanted to emphasize shooting, versatility, experience, as you mentioned these guys that played a lot of basketball. But what I hear more than any anything from anybody who has watched you guys play, and even watching you playing the Bahamas, is the ability to shoot the ball. You know, you got to make shots and games. You guys haven't played
a game yet. But is it crazy to say this could be one of the best shooting teams that you've you've coached or the best? I mean, is that a stretch?
I don't know. I haven't thought of it in that respect. You know, I think it's definitely a team that has skill. We have a lot of guys on the floor that can dribble, pass, and shoot. Whether it's one of the best shooting teams I ever coached, I think it's way way too early to say. But we have a lot of people that a lot of guys that can put the ball in the basket.
Obviously, so from a leadership standpoint, you've got a lot of guys on this roster that have been leaders elsewhere. Is it is it collective? Are a few guys that have kind of emerged.
Yeah, you know, I've been asked that question about leadership, and I really think, you know, it comes from a lot of guys in different ways. You know, some guys are more vocal, some guys are more lead by example guys. But we got a team and a roster full of guys that are about the right things. You know, we talk about elite results, right, which is what we want to do. We want to be the best version of
ourself that we can be. And I think it starts with leadership that drives your culture, that drives your behavior, and that gets your results. And if it's backwards, you got bad leadership, then you're gonna have bad culture, You're gonna have bad behavior, and you're gonna get bad results. So they've done nothing but prove to me that they're the guys that I thought they were. We recruited them
by how they've gone about their business. My message resonates in the locker room and is echoed by our guys, which you know, you got great leadership when guys are selling your message when they're not around you.
What's it like to see a group of mostly veterans guys who played a lot of college basketball in one freshman. I know you talked about Canai and they're in the press conference. That's a very unusual situation to see that. But from what I can gather, it seems like he really embraces that as a young guy who wants to compete and get better, and it seems like the older guys seem to really really, you know, look after him and try to make him better.
Yeah, I think like Canai and James, although James sure's heck doesn't want to be called a freshman because he's not. He's a sophomore, but he was a very very young freshman last year. So to quote younger guys on our team, and can I and James both have kind of old souls. They're they're they're very mature for their grade level or their age level. Both are extremely mature in their approach. They're both gym guys, they're both high basketball IQ guys. They both love to watch film. They ask a lot
of questions. They're the type of guys you have to tell them something once and they got it. I told the story and there in the press conference, how can I almost got offended early on when I was kind of you know, holding his hand and saying, can I on this set? You need to come here? And he looked at me, He's like, come on, coach, I got it.
And that's going to make you feel good.
Right Yeah, yeah, I love that. So you have those older veteran guys that really are grizzled veterans, some of them are twenty three, twenty four years old, and then you have these younger guys that are you know that that have those veteran qualities, which is which is a blessing for a coach.
A couple more questions for you head to your next stop. I know you've got a lot of just endless interviews going on today. We certainly appreciate you making time for us. When it comes to recruiting. I know you can't talk about specific recruits, but you know you're in a position now where you have the ability to use the portal to build your roster. But obviously you're always going to
recruit high school kids. Have you found yourself maybe adjusting when you pull the trigger and say, hey, we really want to put all of our focus on this this incoming freshman because we think he's that special. I mean, maybe it depends on what the class looks like. But now that it's there are two different ways to build your roster. It wasn't like that a few years ago when you were coaching. How have you maybe made any adjustments as a coach when it comes to.
That, Yeah, you know, I do think like with freshmen, like you can really really focus on certain guys and go all in. And if for some reason you would miss on a certain kid for whatever reason, whether he picks another school or he becomes you know, too expensive based on kind of like the the you know, his
nil type stuff, then you know you have that. You know you have that safety net by being able to go into the portal and you know, add some guys with experience and veteran guys that can supplement your roster and make you older and more mature and things like we have this year. So our staff's killing it. I
love where we're at from a recruiting standpoint. We're on the right guys, and how things fall into place over the next several months in terms of the freshmen that we're recruiting, will dictate, you know, our approach to the portal come April.
So I got to ask you this, and I'm sure you're not going to give us a direct answer, and I understand, But when it comes to lineups and whatnot, I mean, how many may don't have to give me a number, But do you feel like there's you know, a variety of different combinations you can put on the floor, maybe not to play different styles necessarily, but just you know, you've got a roster where I feel like the bulk of them in any moment could give you big minutes
if needed, if the matchup was there, if somebody's out or whatnot. I mean, when it comes to personnel, like, there's a lot you can do.
I think, so you know, I mentioned experience, you know, and I think versatility. Depth and versatility would be another word to describe one of the big strengths of our team. There are a lot of different kind of you know, lineups that we could put together that bring certain things to the table. I feel really, really good going very deep into our roster and getting production from from everybody.
So you know, we're still in that process where over these next several weeks, I mean, we still have three and a half weeks or so till our first game, official game. We have two exhibitions. Obviously, you know roles are going to continue to be defined as we go through over the next three weeks, and we've always been
that way. We want practice to be cauldron of competition where guys are always pushing each other, and it'll be interesting to see where the pieces fall into place three and a half weeks from now.
Well, Coach, I know you've got to run to do your next interview. I appreciate you making time for us and we'll see you when the season gets roll one. Thanks Nick, Thanks Joach.